Need to Bolster the Weak Link in Indian Healthcare

Public health in India has perennially been the neglected child of the Indian economy. After independence, as India embarked on its ambitious drive of massive industrialisation, riding on the back of Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) – the social sector, including health, could manage to receive only the left-overs of plan resources. As the era of so called ‘neo-liberalism’ dawned with the proclamation of economic reforms in 1991, one would have expected enhanced attention to public health and the social sector by the government, once the greater burden of production and services was shifted to the private sector. However, there is little to suggest that even a modicum of it has been actually realised, except for the fabulous reception that was extended to corporate healthcare in the country, which still remains prohibitive to many.