Ecohealth approach
Ecohealth approach
Chintan International Trust-India
Chintan International Trust-India is a humanitarian charitable organisation registered in India, helping holistic health development in Himalaya & other areas. Our health program works through linking modern education, research and training to sustainable development in the environmental, social and cultural context of the needy developing areas of the world.
Ecohealth approach
In this entire program the approach that we would be adopting will be an integrated , holistic one.
We can understand it using a very small simple example- take the case of health. If some one falls ills then the reason could be food (quantity/quality, which is connected to land) , water that he is drinking (which would be connected in village context to the forest around, cleaning and maintenance of water sources), air one breathes (could be connected again to how healthy and dense the forest is, emissions coming out through various human activities), milk and other dairy products one is consuming (connected to livestock care which could be in turn connected to forest and agriculture ) and so on. So it is not difficult to see that the health of human being is eventually connected to the health of the environment – be it forest, land or water and health of animals.
So if we need to address any issue even in the area of health then we need to see it in connection with other and not in a compartmentalized isolated manner. So any strategy that we adopt has to have this integrated view point. Most of the organisations , institutions have this very myopic way of looking at things. This leads to treatment of any subject in a very piece meal manner because we fail to see its connections with other spheres and as such its overall impact on human beings. Like wise , it also needs to be women centric particularly in the hill context in India , as women in the hills are connected with these sectors the most. They are the actual farmers , carrying out 90-95 percent of the total activities relating to farming and carrying out most of work relating to land, water, forest and livestock and even health. So it is not difficult to see that if any thing happens that affects these areas , then people or section which are connected most with them would be affected the most. Therefore ,whatever plan we come up with or the strategy that we adopt, would need to have women in the centre. Their perception, experience and their problems and needs will need to be mainstreamed to be effective . same content give remove sapce
