Where There Is No Doctor 2011
WORKING TOWARD A BALANCE BETWEEN
PEOPLE AND LAND
Health depends on many things, but above all it depends on whether people have
enough to eat.
Most food comes from the land. Land that is used well can produce more food. A
health worker needs to know ways to help the land better feed the people—now and
in the future. But even the best used piece of land can only feed a certain number
of people. And today, many of the people who farm do not have enough land to
meet their needs or to stay healthy.
In many parts of the world, the situation is getting worse, not better. Parents often
have many children, so year by year there are more mouths to feed on the limited
land that the poor are permitted to use.
Many health programs try to work toward a balance between people and land
through ‘family planning,’ or helping people have only the number of children they
want. Smaller families, they reason, will mean more land and food to go around. But
family planning by itself has little effect. As long as people are very poor, they often
want many children. Children help with work without having to be paid, and as they
get bigger may even bring home a little money. When the parents grow old, some of
their children—or grandchildren—will perhaps be able to help care for them.
For a poor country to have many children may be an economic disaster. But for a
poor family to have many children is often an economic necessity—especially when
many die young. In the world today, for most people, having many children is the
surest form of social security they can hope for.
Some groups and programs take a different approach. They recognize that hunger
exists not because there is too little land to feed everyone, but because most of
the land is in the hands of a few selfish persons. The balance they seek is a fairer
distribution of land and wealth. They work to help people gain greater control over
their health, land, and lives.
It has been shown that, where land and wealth are shared more fairly and people
gain greater economic security, they usually choose to have smaller families. Family
planning helps when it is truly the people’s choice. A balance between people and
land can more likely be gained through helping people work toward fairer distribution
and social justice than through family planning alone.
It has been said that the social meaning of love is justice. The health worker who
loves her people should help them work toward a balance based on a more just
distribution of land and wealth.
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