Adding life to years

If there is one area we have been outstanding making advances it certainly is the health sector. There are a host of social indices that indicate improvement on several fronts such as increased life expectancy, decline in malnutrition and an arrest of communicable disease.

All this points to a sound health care system that has reached the widest segment of the population who not long ago were without even basic health care.

Yesterday we carried a front page story which had a health Ministry quoting a WHO report saying that life expectancy of Sri Lankans has increased by 10 years. The life expectancy of a female which was 69 years in 2004 had gone up to 79 years. For men it is up from 60 to 69.

This certainly is no mean achievement for a Third World country such as ours which several decades ago had accumulated poor ratings in the social development index with rampant malnutrition and morbidity found among a sizable section of the population.

All successive Governments made genuine attempts to tackle poverty and malnutrition. But most of these plans did not bear fruit chiefly due to administrative bottlenecks and poor targeting.

These have now been overcome to a great extent and those deserving relief identified and provided the necessary sustenance.

The Government has not stopped at mere disbursement of economic support but also proceeded further by opening up self employment avenues to make the deprived segments self sufficient in all respects which also results in improved quality of life and extended longevity.

The achievement is certainly a feather in the cap of the Health Ministry which as mentioned has made giant strides in health care services supplementing the Government's own programmes of poverty alleviation and nutrition supply to targeted segments.

Perhaps as a collorary to the enhanced longevity another part of the same story said that the number of smokers in the country had dropped drastically since 2005.

According to the Health Ministry spokesman while in 2005 we had 30.2 percent of male smokers in the country this had come down to 12.4 per cent in 2007.

This downward spiral has been traced to the Government's introduction of the Alcohol and Tobacco Control Act in 2007. This piece of legislation no doubt imposed stringent bars on tobacco advertising and the sale of cigarettes particularly to minors.

Today it is gratifying to note retail outlets sporting the sign "Cigarette Netha" (No cigarettes) in the premises. Sceptics who scoffed at the blackout of smoking scenes of TV perhaps would reverse their judgement.

The campaign would also have been aided by a gradual decline in the fad of smoking which was at its peak in the early years where it was common to see even schoolboys in white uniform having their puffs with airs of grandeur and superiority.

Perhaps this may have been the reason why the giant cigarette producing monopoly had to branch out into other fields such as insurance or green house cultivation. The cumulative effect of both the Government sponsored drive and the fading of the smoking fad has had the desired effect as evidenced by the report indicating a drastic drop in smokers.

This would also make it easier for those engaged in fighting cancer and other smoking related diseases in their campaigns whilst also easing the strain on the national health budget.

Reports also indicate that the Government's Mathata Thitha programme launched on the special initiative of the President is beginning to show desired results. Though total abstention is hard to achieve there is an increasing trend noticed of heavy drinkers taking to soft liquor, which may result in a lower health bill.

It is also necessary to eliminate the moonshine menace, which has claimed many lives over the years. Moonshine brewers do not pay a red cent in taxes to the Government, whereas legal manufacturers of alcoholic beverages do.

But the Government has to spend millions of rupees for treating addicts of illegal liquor. An excise policy has to be evolved taking these factors also into consideration.