Abstract
Given the poor quantity and quality of medical care in most villages in the developing countries, the economic determinants of village health are the supply of labour, the cash flow associated with that labour and the availability of land. The paper examines these in the three classical 'time periods', arguing that inability to meet labour peaks is of great significance in explaining seasonal shortage of food and chronic shortage of cash. It also explains community indifference to upkeep of social overhead capital. Substitution of capital goods for labour is socially differentiated, not least by labour availability, and leads inevitably to a regressive distribution of land and the creation or enlargement of a class of landless labourers. Under certain limited conditions this class may enjoy a rising real income with associated health-promotive expenditures. The more normal case, however, is extreme poverty, whether rural or urban, with all that that implies for the undermining of health. Land reform therefore becomes a necessary precondition of health promotion.
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Schedule a callMore From: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
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