Hidden Health Gaps

(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer) Health research in Kashmir keeps producing numbers that should change lives. Surveys arrive with clear findings and wide participation. They map health challenges in homes, villages, and towns. People everywhere see these figures and the pressing words attached to them. But everyday health on the ground stays far from the promise of the data.

The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) shows that an overwhelming number of children under five in Jammu and Kashmir are anaemic. Nearly 73 percent of children (6-59 months) have low haemoglobin levels. Many have moderate or severe anaemia, which affects strength, growth, and learning ability. These rates have climbed sharply since the previous round.

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Women's health creates its own alarm. Around 66 percent of women aged 15-49 face anaemia of varying severity. This rate rose from 49 percent in an earlier survey to the current level. Such widespread anaemia harms women's energy, immunity, and pregnancy outcomes.

Surveys also detail chronic diseases. New data show that only about a third of adults in the Union Territory have normal blood pressure. Hypertension and diabetes appear across age groups and signal growing risks of heart disease and kidney problems. Nearly 8.7 percent of women and 8 percent of men aged over 15 have high blood sugar levels.

Mental health surveys reveal another layer of emergency. A 2015 representative study found that 45 percent of adults struggle with depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress symptoms. Around 41 percent have probable depression and 26 percent show anxiety symptoms in a large random sample across ten districts. A more recent rural study finds that 11.3 percent of adults have diagnosable psychiatric conditions, with women showing higher prevalence than men. Only a small fraction seek treatment.

These reports share several common threads. They show health measures at precise levels across ages, genders, and communities. They highlight real and serious issues. The data are clear enough to guide planning at village, block, and district levels. They tell health leaders where to focus screening, prevention, medicines, and staff.

The problem starts after the surveys end. Governments, planners, and administrators often file the findings away. Health budgets and personnel choices repeat old patterns. Rural areas still have few specialists and long travel distances to reach a clinic. Anaemia continues in communities with little follow-through on nutrition and iron programs. Mental health care remains too limited to match the levels seen in research.

People in Kashmir see health workers, clinics, and campaigns, but the wider picture of progress remains hard to find. Surveys create understanding. They tell what exists and whom it affects. They should lead to action that revitalises care and reaches every home.

If the real work of turning numbers into real help stays incomplete, surveys will remain interesting reports rather than tools of change.

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