Blog 5

India 

    Over the years, India has made significant progress in improving the health and well-being of the people. For example, the improvement in vaccination coverage for children between 12-23 months of age helped reduce the infant mortality rates (from 57 in 2005-06 to 41 in 2015-16) and under-five mortality rates (from 74 to 50 over the same period.) Other improvements include the increase of  institutional deliveries, from 38.7% in 2005-06 to 78.9% in 2015-16 (UN, 2017.) Although this process has been a great change in health indicators, there are still various factors that continue to affect the health and lives of the people in India. 

Implement and Monitor

    To further improve the health and well-being of the people, the United Nations created  The National Health Policy in 2017, which included targets for universalizing primary health care, achieving further reductions in infant and under-5 mortality, preventing premature deaths due to non-communicable diseases as well as increasing government expenditure on health (UN, 2017.) 

    To monitor the SDG, responsibilities have been divided among the implementing ministries, departments and agencies at central and state levels. The National Institution for Transforming India and the Prime Minister as its chairperson, work together to provide the overall coordination and leadership. India’s statistical system and institutions gather data and report on defined parameters in various sectors. National SDG indicators are being currently constructed to better capture the context of India and its needs (UN, 2017.) 

Agenda Cost

    To achieve SDG 3, the health and well-being of the people, India would need to increase its Health Index, which includes the health status of the population, quality of healthcare institutions and financial instruments for access to healthcare to 0.9. As of 2011, India’s Health Index was 0.702. India is estimated to require around INR 55 lakh crores (USD 880 billion) till 2030 to achieve the target value of its Health Index. A gap of around INR 19 lakh crores (USD 305 billion) is estimated (Development Alternatives Group, 2015.)

Health Issue 

    Infant, child and maternal health have improved by reducing the mortality rates, however, there is still an excessive spread of communicable and non-communicable diseases. One-fourth of global Tuberculosis cases occur in India, where nearly 2.1 million people live with the disease, and an estimated 423,000 die annually as a result (UN, n.d.) This disease not only impacts the well being of the person affected by it, but it also burdens family and public resources, weakens societies, and squanders potential. Implementing the SDG will help reduce the spread of disease, strengthen and increase treatment options, increase health care services, and address new and emerging health issues. 

Resources

    When it comes to health care, India has a very limited resources to ensure the health of the public. India has a severe shortage of qualified health workers and the workforce is concentrated in urban areas. Poor and rural areas don’t have the access of quality health services, and to many the only options they have are unqualified workers to receive care. Such issues are a result of underinvestment in and poor governance of the health sector--two issues that the government urgently needs to address. A comprehensive national policy for human resources is needed to achieve universal health care in India. Such a policy might also encourage task-shifting and mainstreaming doctors and practitioners who practice traditional Indian medicine (ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, unani, and siddha) and homoeopathy to work in these areas while adopting other innovative ways of augmenting human resources for health. At the same time, additional investments will be needed to improve the relevance, quantity, and quality of nursing, medical, and public health education in the country (Rao, 2011.) 

Addressing and Prioritizing 

    One of the reasons why India suffers from inadequate health care is because of low budgetary allocations. The government’s health expenditure has remained at around 1% of GDP over the past decade, which puts India significantly behind the global average. To address this issue, India is focused on providing essential services to the entire population, mainly on the poor and vulnerable groups. Alongside the UN, the Indian government created the programs such as the National Health Mission, which prioritises national wellbeing and has created programmes that fight against HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, and the National Health Policy, which shows the government’s commitment to reforming the healthcare system, achieving universal health coverage, and proposing an increase in the health budget to 2.5% of GDP (UN, n.d.) The government also  launched Mission Indradhanush in 2015 to rapidly increase immunisation coverage. It is also investing significant resources towards ending open defecation by 2019 through the Swachh Bharat programme (UN, n.d.) 

References 

Development Alternatives Group (2015.) Achieveing the Sustainable Developmnet Goals in India. https://www.devalt.org/images/L3_ProjectPdfs/AchievingSDGsinIndia_DA_21Sept.pdf

Rao, M., Rao, K. D., Kumar, A. K., Chatterjee, M., & Sundararaman, T. (2011). Human resources for health in India. Lancet (London, England), 377(9765), 587–598. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61888-0

United Nations. (n.d.). SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being. https://in.one.un.org/page/sustainable-development-goals/sdg-3-2/

United Nations. (n.d.). Health, Water and Sanitation - UN India. https://in.one.un.org/health-water-and-sanitation/

United Nations. (2017.) On the Implemtation of Sustainable Developmemt Goals. Voluntary National Review Report. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/15836India.pdf