GEOMEDICAL ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH CARE: A Study of Bundelkhand Region

At present, there is a pronounced awareness of the importance of understanding the geographical aspects of human health problems. The concept of geomedical environment is based upon analytical approach to the distribution of diseases in relation to the physical environment, economic conditions and socio-behavioural phenomena. This, in return, helps us demarcate public health and illness. The growth and variation of diseases within a spatial unit are primarily governed by socio-economic and behavioural factors. These aspects of cultural geography are mostly neglected by medical scientists. To emphasize these aspects a new methodology termed as ‘geomedical approach’ has been advanced and accepted as base for undertaking the present study.
The backward region of Bundelkhand, on which the present study is based, has poor environmental sanitation and low standard of nutrition. These is a notable lack of education, as a result of which the inhabitants have a poor knowledge about personal hygiene, proper infant feeding and family planning methods. This is a sincere effort to provide guidelines to the scholars of medical geography and social medicine for future research.