Neglecting the health sector has consequences

Source– The post is based on the article “Neglecting the health sector has consequences” published in The Hindu on 8th February 2023.

Syllabus: GS2- Issues relating to development and management of health and education

Relevance– Social sector

News– The allocations in the Budget for health, education and nutrition has remained stagnant.

What is the importance of health and education?

For sustainable, long-term growth of the country, expanding universal access to high quality education, healthcare and nutrition is imperative.

No country can go far if a significant proportion of its population is illiterate, unhealthy or malnourished. All the countries that are developed today invested well in education, health and nutrition.

Studies in the U.S. show that after the Reagan era, innovation and scientific capability were impacted when public investment in education was reduced to push privatisation.

What is the status of the social sector in India?

A study showed that 230 million Indians slid into poverty due to COVID-19. The ASER report shows the abysmal state of education. Many Class 5 students are unable to read a Class 2 textbook.

NFHS-5 data show that among children aged below five years, 35.5% were stunted and 32.1% were underweight.

Disease burden is rising with non-communicable diseases, mental health and geriatric care adding to the load of communicable diseases.

India lacks adequate human resources, infrastructure and access to affordable diagnosis and treatment.

What are indications from the budget for the health sector?

Budget is disappointing in the case of the health and education sector.

The allocations for education and nutrition are stagnant. The budget for midday meals was reduced by 9%.

The budget provides allocation for free foodgrains to 80 crore poor and other welfare provisions. But these are partial gains. They don’t address the widening inequalities.

What were the lessons learnt from COVID19 in case of the health sector?

There is a lack of financial risk protection. This leads to citizens incurring huge expenses, estimated to be more than ₹70,000 crore.

A broken down primary health system, particularly in the north resulted in a large number of avoidable deaths.

There is absence of well-equipped and functioning district hospitals to cope with demand. India needs an infusion of resources and a bold imagination to address these.

It also showed us the poor state of the regulatory framework. Many laws have serious infirmities and embed conflicts of interest. Some need to be scrapped and some amended.

COVID-19 also underscored the need to invest in public health to build our disease surveillance system and strengthen resilience to such shocks.

What is the way forward for better healthcare provisioning in India?

Addressing flaws in the healthcare sector is urgent because there is no guarantee that the worst is over.

It is the responsibility of a government to protect its citizens against any such eventuality by improving the healthcare system and reducing vulnerability.

We need political leadership backed by adequate funding to rebuild our public health system, promote scientific research, and expand health security.

Equity and justice are values that must be guiding factors. Measuring policy and money allocation in terms of political benefits is short-term and unsustainable. When such structures collapse, the poor and marginalised suffer disproportionately.