A robust ‘health and well-being budget for 2021-22’

Synopsis: The government has come up with an integrated health and well-being budget for 2021-22. It would help meet the current and upcoming challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background:

• The pandemic struck India in March 2020 and exposed the vulnerabilities of the Indian health care system.
• Although India’s performance in tackling the pandemic was better than various developed countries. But its impact on the economy and society was significant.
• It was therefore imperative to come up with a strong health and wellbeing budget to develop resilience against the ill effects of the pandemic. The health budget was prepared in this context of Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.

Government measures for strengthening ‘health and wellbeing’:

• A Production linked incentive scheme is announced to boost the manufacture of pharmaceutical and medical devices.
• 35000 crore rupees has been allocated for the development of COVID-19 vaccine. Mission COVID Suraksha has been launched to improve indigenous vaccine testing and development. Further coverage of pneumococcal vaccine will also be enhanced.
• Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) was launched to provide free food grains to 800 million beneficiaries.
• One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) will target 690 million beneficiaries covering 32 states/UTs.
• Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) has been given substantial allocation.
• There would be an expansion of health and wellness centres under Pradhan Mantri – Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana (PMANSBY). It would also involve using a 13,192 crore Finance Commission grant for strengthening the primary health system.
• Allocation for the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) has not changed in comparison to last year.
• There has been a 40% increase in Budget of the Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) ministry.

Significance:

• First, the nature of allocation strengthens the vision of making India Atma Nirbhar.
• Second, initiatives like Mission COVID Suraksha will help India sustain its position of being the vaccine hub of the world. Significant allocation towards vaccine development will also ensure all the citizens are able to get vaccinated in due time.
• Third, PMGKY and ONORC will help in ensuring food and nutritional security in the country.
• Fourth, a reduction in diseases namely Malaria, Polio and Diarrhoea would be seen due to substantial allocation towards JJM. This is explained by a report released by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2019.
• Fifth, focusing on capital expenditure through schemes like PMANSBY is a welcome step for strengthening the health system. Earlier the capital expenditure used to constitute only a small fraction of health allocation.
• Sixth, an improvement in AYUSH ministry’s budget will allow the country to focus more on preventive care and integrated treatment. 
• Lastly, integration of health with well-being (Water, Sanitation and Nutrition) would help in improving the outcomes. Both National Health Policy, 2017 and Economic Survey have stressed the interdependence of these sectors.  

Way Forward:

India’s commitment towards health has allowed it to successfully deliver 8 million doses of COVID vaccine to health and frontline workers. This is the fastest vaccination drive in the world.

• Allocation towards schemes like PM-JAY should be enhanced. A 20% decline was seen in infant mortality rate (IMR) between 2015-20 in states which adopted the scheme in comparison to a 12% in IMR decline in states which didn’t adopt it as per the economic survey.
• The states must increase their health spending to 8% of their respective budgets by 2022 as recommended by the National Health Policy and Finance Commission. This would reduce the burden on the Centre and ensure effective spending.

The Union Budget has effectively prepared the ground for tackling the upcoming challenges in the health sector. This should be coupled with other reforms so that the resilience capacity of the country gets enhanced. This would help in achieving the vision of universal health coverage by 2030 as part of sustainable development goals.