Mobilenews24x7 Bureau
Diseases, particularly preventable and treatable ones, or other episodes of physical and mental injury, add up to a huge loss of creative and productive capabilities the world over.
Productivity per employee, across sectors in India, is much lower than in most developed and many developing economies.
Last fortnight, a bout of mild flu laid me low. The physical discomfort was trivial and mostly required just some rest. But since it came in the middle of a particularly busy writing schedule, the loss of productive hours was high.
It got me thinking about the effects of ill-health and disease on productivity at a national level, in ways we normally don’t consider. In the post-Covid world, we tend to think of health issues with the survivor’s bias – don’t complain if you are lucky enough to be alive. So, while we are shocked when Covid numbers cross 10,000, we don’t worry too much if there is a flu or a malaria or a dengue epidemic in our city.
Yet, amplified across the world, diseases, particularly preventable and treatable ones, or other episodes of physical and mental injury, add up to a huge loss of our creative and productive capabilities.
A slightly dated study by think tank Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) highlighted how higher incidence of illness among employees was costing Indian companies dearly, with some of them losing as many as 51 working days in a year due to sickness among workers. The loss to productivity and profits though not calculated was expected to be sizeable. Significantly, diseases like diarrhea, influenza, malaria and dengue were the main causes. They were followed by lifestyle diseases like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, stroke and mental disorders.
