Uttarakhand 231
androus formation of society which adversely tells on her health.
The serf of the day who carries heavy loads on her head or back
has also to cook meals for the family and after a strenuous day
she finds at night one of the young husbands making amorous,
advances. The result is total physical breakdown of the woman
concerned, confusing growth of the children and increasing
immorality which has created the horror of venereal diseases.
Now with the passage of time, introduction of primary
education, continued social work and increasing'awareness amongst
the women and their guardians is taking place about the pitiable
condition of womenfolk. Evils like child marriage, dowry, sale
price, polyandry and excessive physical labour are fast disap-
pearing.
Lack of proper sanitation and death of medical coverage
Inspite of their hard life, close proximity to nature and
bracing climate, the average man in the hills is shorter in stature
and poorer in physique. This is because of lack of personal
and environmental hygiene, impure drinking water, unbalanced
diet, living in dark dingy and smoke filled rooms. Most of the
village streets are littered with night soil which causes not only
widely prevalent diseases but also helps in the spread of these to
other villages. The result is that today diseases like goitre, deaf-
mutism, leprosy, venereal diseases, tuberculosis and intestinal
diseases are widely prevalent. This is caused because of insanitary
habits, impure drinking water, poor living condition and lack of
space. In fact, this has accounted for the poor health of the
hill people.
The Government has certainly opened widespread network of
hospitals, primary health centres and Ayurvedic clinics but due
to lack of knowledge about the local conditions and poor plan-
ning most of the hospitals are either without doctors or medicines.
In fact, Government should open smaller hospitals which a
compounder can manage. The supply of medicines needs to be
increased and the officer-in-charge of these health centres should
be prompted to induce people to improve local conditions of
sanitation and hygiene, so that we are able to work by the old
adage that prevention is better than cure.