Family’s Health Matters and Role of Women

Abstract

The MDGs adopted by the United Nations in the year 2000 targeted 2015 as the year to achieve the millennium development goals which include eight goals framed to address the world's major development challenges with health and its related areas as the prime focus. Out of the eight goals to be achieved by 2015 three goals are directly related to health, the other goals are related to factors which have a significant influence on health. The main areas of focus are poverty, health, education, gender equality and sustainable development. Various poverty eradication programmes in the form of employment generation schemes has been implemented that emphasizes on participation of women, with a believed that their participation would lead to their empowerment. Evidence shows that resources in the hands of women boost household spending in areas that benefit family and children health. Women empowerment has been an important area of focus, various scheme has been launched with a prime focus on empowering the woman, as it has been acknowledged that women do have a very important role in the process of development. This paper intends to examine the role women in health related matters of the family. The study is mainly based on primary data collected in the Morigoan district of Assam.

Keywords: Empowerment, Participation, Health-care.