| Findings of a CII-Indicus Analytics study. |
Contribution of the private sector in terms of the availability of hospital beds has gradually increased from 61 per cent in 1996 to 78 per cent in 2009 but still access to quality healthcare is still a distant dream for many in the country, according to a report released by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) & Indicus Analytics.
“Indians have inadequate access to quality healthcare, and this is particularly true for the poor, those residing in rural areas, STs and women. According to the report, about 7-8 per cent of households are pushed below the poverty line because of expenses incurred on healthcare. There are critical gaps in infrastructure especially with respect to the presence of healthcare centres and well-trained staff,” CII said in a statement.
Releasing the report, the Minister of State for Health, Mr Dinesh Trivedi, said that the next step would be to create a team of specialists and experts that will work to find solutions from the report.
The India Health Report has consolidated various facets of health sector in India such as access to healthcare, major inputs such as infrastructure availability, human resources, water and sanitation, nutrition, the role of Government, issues relating to ethics and reforms in health sector.
The report states that in terms of under-nutrition, India's performance is no better than the countries in Africa and some of its neighbours such as Bangladesh and Pakistan and it is substantially below that of countries in Latin America, and China and the Philippines.
“India remains home to one-third of the world's undernourished children. Policy makers will need to incorporate the impact of their decisions on the nutrition profile of Indian households. The focus needs to increasingly shift away from merely foodgrains and towards the intake of a variety of foods in the correct proportions,” CII said.
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