Healthcare Accessibility and Rural Social Inequality in Bahraich District, Uttar Pradesh: A Socio-geographical Methodological Study

Abstract

Healthcare accessibility combines geographical, financial, organisational and household-level conditions. This methodological illustration applies a socio-geographical framework to a 600-record tabulated household dataset attributed to six development blocks of Bahraich District, Uttar Pradesh. The original source material does not establish independently verifiable fieldwork provenance; accordingly, the reported aggregates are examined as illustrative statistical inputs rather than as population estimates. A Healthcare Accessibility Index (HAI) and Rural Social Vulnerability Index (RSVI) structure the assessment. In the supplied summaries, mean HAI is 0.650 (SD = 0.087) and mean RSVI is 0.327 (SD = 0.110). Reported HAI values differ according to household transport availability (0.692 versus 0.589) and health insurance status (0.688 versus 0.607), while the tabulated correlation between HAI and RSVI is -0.276. These comparisons indicate how linked access and vulnerability measures can be presented, but their statistical significance and generalisability cannot be independently assessed without the underlying records, variable specifications and sampling documentation. Moreover, variables potentially used to form HAI also appear as predictors in the supplied regression, introducing mechanical dependence. The illustration identifies a potentially useful framework for analysing rural healthcare access, while distinguishing methodological demonstration from verified evidence about Bahraich households. Future empirical application requires documented probability or explicitly non-probability sampling, transparent index construction, reproducible analysis and validation of figures against source observations.