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Abstract

Introduction: Undoubtedly, the recent outbreak of pandemic has imparted a deeper impact globally as well as on Indian economy. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the necessity of ultimate health care facilitation has been realized. The undermined health facilitation causes serious consequences on the health status of the citizens. Hence at this juncture, there is a need to have a look at the health seeking behaviour and capture a detail insight regarding the health care facilitation provided by Government. The study intends to analyze the status of health seeking behavior among citizens and the related health care facilitation acrossthe Indian States.

Methodology: To conduct the study, data has been extracted from National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), 71st round, Social Consumption: Health. Total 37,244 interviewed person have been considered for the study, those who are suffering from any illness in last 15 days. To assess the performance of the states in terms of both health seeking behaviour and health care facilitation, the TOPSIS algorithm technique has been used to rank the states in order.

Result: Post analyzing the data on various health indicators regarding health care facilitation the states has been ranked using the TOPSIS score. It has been observed that, the states from southern zone viz. Kerala and Tami Nadu are at the top of ranking, whereas States from Northern zone as well as eastern zone viz. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand are found to be at the bottom of the list. On the other hand, while looking at the health seeking behavior pattern, the states those who are top in the ranking are Kerala, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh and the states where the health seeking behavior among the people are considerably low are Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Bihar.

Conclusion: It has been observed that, although the health seeking behavior in few states are quite good but the health care facilitation seems to be drastically poor such as Uttar Pradesh, similarly in west Bengal the health seeking behaviour among the individual is at the top of the ranking but the health care facilitation seems to be lacking behind. But in Telangana where the state is good at health care facilitation, the health seeking behaviour among the individual seems to be poor in this state. Although Kerala and Tamil Nadu seems to be the exception, since the states are well performing in both the cases, but the situation is exactly opposite for Bihar and Jharkhand since it is performing drastically poor in both the cases. The major reason behind the interstate disparity is the lack of public health care service and poor public health infrastructure along with lack of awareness among the individual which imparted a serious consequence on the health seeking behaviour pattern. Poor public health infrastructure accompanied with shortage of doctors especially in rural India encompasses increased dependence on private health care system, which jeopardize the individual with poor socioeconomic condition and ultimately end up with an uncanny health seeking behaviour pattern.

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