Almost the entire human society on earth is associated with some religion or the other. Human health, conduct and behavior and social beliefs related to health are to some extent based on religious faith. Religious places like temples, monasteries, gurudwaras, mosques, churches, etc. are not only sacred places of worship for an individual, but they also form the basis of social, public aspects of the daily routine of the people of the community. Some similarity is definitely seen among many religious institutions prevalent in the world. People are seen to have a deep connection with their religious places, either traditionally or formally. There are indications that people’s individual or community’s collective health and disease-related behavior is influenced by the power of their religious institutions. – Dr. Krishna Nand Pandey
Years past have seen a collaboration between public health systems and many faith groups and other religious institutions to promote general health and prevent disease. But the governments, especially during the health crisis like Covid-19, through the holy places of worship like temples, mosques, gurudwaras, churches, provided assistance in many activities like meeting the emergency needs of not only the patients but also all the suffering persons of the community, providing necessary information, arranging ambulances to immediately take the patients on the verge of death to the hospitals, providing oxygen cylinders etc.
Apart from these, to control the locally prevalent diseases, religious and spiritual leaders provide great assistance in creating early awareness about health problems, removing or eliminating the concepts related to the problem of the disease and increasing the participation of the people of the community in identifying the disease and the patient.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, many religious organizations had arranged for free food, shelter and development nutrition for the homeless, unemployed, suffering and helpless persons, which is a unique example of their dedicated spirit of service. Religious institutions have also played an important role in the situation of TB and many other types of communicable diseases.
Some studies have been conducted on the role of religious institutions in conducting public health programs to prevent and control certain outbreaks in the community, but there has been a lack of authentic information examining the role of places of worship in programs conducted to address public health problems. Information on these aspects will provide critical information needed to scale up community-based public health programs as well as be helpful in developing inclusive health systems. It includes inclusive health services provided by existing social and cultural organizations. Inclusive health is an approach designed to prevent and address extreme health inequalities that result from severe deprivation and deep social exclusion.
It is inherently interdisciplinary, requiring contributions from experts with wide professional and personal experience. Most of the people in the world are followers of some religion or the other. Usually people gather at religious places regularly or on special occasions. These religious places can not only create awareness among the community about disease control through public health efforts, but are also able to provide as much support as possible to patients and their families in critical situations. They also help in removing the negative mood of the patients, providing them emotional and human support, and building self-confidence through promoting favorable relations with the community.
These religious places play an important role in developing healthy behavior among individuals, providing better information to individuals to prevent the spread of diseases, developing trusting relationships between community members and health care systems, as well as providing support to remote communities without access to health facilities and motivating public health system officials to provide health care to those in need. Overall, all these activities are an important contribution of religious places in creating confidence among the people of the community and increasing their capacity to deal with serious situations related to the disease.