NGOs demand 3 pc of GDP be spent on healthcare
Ahead of the Union Budget 2008-09, NGOs today demanded that the Government should live up to its promise of allocating three per cent of the GDP to the healthcare sector.
By PTI |
NEW DELHI: Ahead of the Union Budget 2008-09, NGOs today demanded that the Government should live up to its promise of allocating three per cent of the GDP to the healthcare sector.
Healthcare activists under the umbrella of the 'Wada Na Todo Abhiyan' rued that the Government was spending only 0.9 per cent of the total GDP on health services.
"The Government had promised to spend three per cent of the GDP on the healthcare sector. The Union Budget for 2008-09 is its last opportunity to fulfil the promise which the Government had made," said Sandhya Venkateswaran of the 'Wada Na Todo' campaign.
Complaining that the public healthcare system in the country was in a poor condition, the activists pointed out gaps in policy-making and lapses in implementation of schemes at the lower levels.
The activists said majority of the diseases which affect the Indian population are easily curable with elementary medicines, but in recent years policies are focusing more on incurable diseases at the cost of curable diseases.
Another big problem which the health sector faces is the acute shortage of skilled and semi-skilled health workers in the rural sector, they said.
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"More women die during childbirth in India than anywhere else in the world. India accounts for 20 per cent of global maternal and child deaths and has the highest maternal death toll in the world estimated at 1,38,000," said Avinash Kumar, a health policy expert.Download
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