Read the passage and answer the question based on it. Health is wealth. In the life of a human being, health occupies an important place. Preservation of health should be the primary duty of mankind. Health is man's normal condition, his birthright. It is the result of living in accordance with the natural laws, pertaining to the body, mind, and environment. Healthy environment facilities good health but it is the unhealthy environment due to overpopulation, excessive industrialization, air and water pollution, etc. that is threatening life with many dreadful diseases. In contemporary India, many people have been gripped by the clutch of diseases like cancer, diabetes, hypertension, etc. although people of ancient India were said to be relatively healthy. At present people are suffering from various mental disorders also because they are racing blindly towards fame and having only one aim in life that is to achieve a big status in society. There is no field of human endeavor that has been so misunderstood as health. While health connotes well-being and the absence of illness has a low profile, it is illness representing the failure of health which virtually monopolizes attention because of the fear of pain, disability, and death. This provides the medical practitioner power over the patients which can be misused. Till recently, patients had implicit faith in their doctor whom they loved and respected, not only for his knowledge but also in the total belief that practitioners of this noble profession, guided by ethics, always placed the patient’s interest above all other considerations. India’s indigenous systems of medicine like Ayurveda and yoga have been more concerned with the promotion of health. Healthy practices like cleanliness, proper diet, exercise, and meditation are part of the culture that sustains people even in the prevailing conditions of poverty in rural India and in unhygienic urban slums. These systems consider disease as an aberration resulting from disturbance of the equilibrium of health, which must be corrected by gentle restoration of this balance through proper diet, medicines, and the establishment of mental peace. They also teach the graceful acceptance of old age with its infirmities resulting from the degenerative process as well as of death which is inevitable. This is in marked contrast to the western concept of life as a struggle against disease, aging, and death which must be fought and conquered with the knowledge and technology derived from their science: a science which, with its narrow dissecting and qualifying approach, has provided us the understanding of the microbial causes of communicable diseases and provided highly effective technology for their prevention, treatment, and control.

Q: Why should the preservation of health be the duty of mankind? /3

Q. Justify the statement,” There is no field of human endeavor that has been so misunderstood as health.” /3

Q. How far do you agree with the fact that India’s ancient systems of medicine like yoga and Ayurveda are far better than the commonly practiced ones? /3