Poor Economics Resume Chapter 3 : Health

Hei there! I am going to continue my resume for chapter 3 of Poor Economics Book. Things are getting more interesting as more pages i flipped. The way the author present the book is great. On one side, you are being taken directly to observe and feel the poor's condition as you were there. On the other side, it still relate the phenomenon with relevant economic approaches, making it easily understandable, and can be modeled for a wider use.

In chapter 3, it talks about poverty and health. Health is an important aspect for every single human in earth. We had seen million people dead each year because of disease. Most of them are comes out as a result of flawed behavior to maintain body health. This case are worse for poor. Unlike the rich, who had enough money to pay the bill, poor often can not do anything other than pray, and struggling for disease they suffer. The cost are way to expensive for them to pay it off. There just only one way out, that author emphasize a lot trough this chapter, which is implementing preventive action for reducing risk from suffering.

It is interesting to know that poor disease are less various than rich When our middle and rich people are suffer from a so-called-modern disease like stroke, cancer, diabetes, etc, poor are less varied with their disease. Most of them are suffer from malaria, diarrhea, fever, HIV, polio and disease which mainly came from dirty living place, rather than eating habit. This risk of suffering for this disease, actually, can be reduce, if they know how to prevent it. Giving them Oralit ( a mixture between salt, sugar, and water to reduce dehydration), can reduce the death rate caused of dehydration that is experience by diarrhea patients. It even can be further mitigate if the family purify the water with NaCl ( according to the book, poor had low access to piped water, thus, use unreliable source of water). For malaria, lot of NGO had provide them with bed nest. Bed nest will cover them from mosquito attack when we sleep. For polio, it is recommend that child below 7 are routinely immunized.

There are lot of ways that can be done to reduce the risk, but in fact, it is not easy to convince the poor. In many ways, even when the service was offering at very low rate, even free, much of them are reluctant to do that. It is simply because they do not have any urgency to cover them self now. Author relates it with an argument that people tend to suffer more in present, than in the future. Based on the argument, author believe that reluctance came as poor's are not suffer now, so why should care?. Whereas, the cost of prevention are far more cheaper than medication. But poor's seemed can not see the importance of prevent themselves from the threat.

Institutional problems also exist. In some countries, there are lack of proper medical facilities available. Even when its available, poor had no incentives to use it. Doctors often not reliable. In their studies, it shown that doctors in rural are asked less than it should ask, and giving under-perform treatment to patient. But it is quite reasonable, since less good doctors are willing to be placed in rural areas.

To solve this problem. Author came with a solution to design a system to encourage poor's to receive the prevention program routinely. And he chooses to gives them reward if they are came to take the prevention program. And as planned, it works! Number of people receiving programs are increasing after being promised for a reward. Yet problem are not solved already. One question left : How long it would gonna last? Will it still continue even when there are no rewards? . Those are not answered until the end of chapter. I expect that those questions will be discussed later on.  But one thing for sure, another problem is on the way, and implementing theories to poor are simply not as easy as we thought.

I am now reading chapter 4 about school. Looking for another great story!

Kodinhi, alkisah Kota Kembar di India

Kodinhi, mungkin terasa asing kita mendengarnya. Kodinhi merupakan salah satu kota di India, yang berada di daerah India Selatan. Kota ini mayoritas ditempati oleh India Muslim, dengan populasi 1,5 juta.

Kodinhi menjadi salah satu terkenal di dunia, karena diberi gelar sebagai Kota Kembar. Gelar ini disematkan karena banyaknya kelahiran kembar di kota ini, Bayangkan, ada sebuah keluarga, yang selam turun temurun memiliki 250 keturunan kembar di dalam keluarganya!. Di kota ini, kelahiran kembar merupakan suatu hal yang lumrah. Setiap momen kelahiran anak, sang orang tua mengharapkan anaknya lahir kembar, yang mereka anggap sebagai berkah Allah SWT.

Fenomena Kodinhi ini menyita perhatian banyak pakar, salah satunya Dr.Brijit. Dr.Brikit merupakan pakar Biologi yang meneliti fenomena anak kembar di Kodinhi. Dr.Brijit menemukan, fenomena kembar di Kodinhi, telah berlangsung selama 20-35 tahun yang lalu, Di mana angka kelahiran anak kembar sangatlah pesat tiap tahunnya. Angka pertumbuhan disana, juta mencapai ratusan ribu penduduk tiap tahunnya, dan hampir separuhnya anak kembar.

Dr.Brijit, menganggap ini adalah salah satu fenomena alam yang luar biasa. Ia menganggap, bahwa fenomena ini disebabkan oleh rekayasa genetis. Di Kodingi, dahulunya para muda-mudi kawin dalam usia yang muda, sekitar 18 tahun. Selain itu, banyak pula yang diantara mereka yang kawin antar-sepupu, yang dianggap Dr.Brijit sebagai faktor penyebabnya.

Padahal, hingga 30 tahun lalu, banyak wanita Kodinhi yang mandul. Hingga pada saat itu, diberikanlah reramuan untuk mencegah kemandulan itu. Dr.Brijit juga berpendapat ramuan tersebut sangat mungkin merangsang ovarium wanita, dan membuat suatu rekaya genetis dalam kelahiran anak kembar.

Penyebaran jumlah anak kembar di Kodinhi memang menyita perhatiaan dunia. Sama dengan Vol Allegre di Brazil, dan teori Building Effect, suatu alasan ketidaksengajaan genetis dalam kelahiran anak kembar. Namun, di Kodinhi, suatu anggapa kita bahwa “apabila kita melahirkan anak kembar, maka kemungkinan anak kembar akan lahir kembali pada cucu kita”. Ternyata di Kodinhi tidak seperti itu, anak kita mungkin saja kembali melahirkan anak kembar.

Namun, dibalik cerita tersebut, terdapat sisi negatif dari peningkatan kelahiran jumlah anak kembar. Kelahiran anak yang pesat, menimbulkan beban ekonomi bagi keluarga. Ditambah lagi, di Kodinhi, ada semacam biaya yang diberikan kepada keluarga istri, tiap kelahiran anak.

Hal ini menyebabkan tidak jarang praktek aborsi dilakukan. Banyak yang diantara mereka menganggap anak perempuan kembar justru menjadi suatu tanggungan berat bagi keluarga. Meskipun, anggapan tersebut sudah berkurang saat ini, ledakan populasi menjadi masalah bagi Kodinhi.

Ditulis berdasarkan tayang NatGeo Channel (Senin,11 Januari 2011) : Inside Town:Twin Towns