About 7 to 8 per cent of households in the country are pushed below the poverty line every year because of expenses incurred on healthcare, according to India Health Report 2010 prepared by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Indicus Analytics.

The India health Report, released recently, also said that the contribution of the private sector in terms of the availability of hospital beds has gradually increased from about 28 per cent in 1973 to about 61 per cent in 1996. Indicus estimates this to have reached about 78 per cent in 2009.

Prepared by a leading think tank Indicus Analytics, the India Health Report 2010 was released by the Minister of State for Health Dinesh Trivedi . The minister stated that right to life is very basic and so is the right to health. The report has consolidated various facets of health sector in India such as access to healthcare, major inputs such as infrastructure availability, human resources, water & sanitation, nutrition, the role of government, issues relating to ethics and reforms in health sector.

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.

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, 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.

Relating to disease management in India, the India Health Report states that health education and regular screening are crucial if the country is to tackle the spread of the diseases on an uptrend. The government also has to step up initiatives to create an environment where mental and physical disorders and disabilities are included in the mainstream discussion on health management. The Report recommends that India needs to move away from disease-specific measures and towards the development of a holistic public health and healthcare regime.

The Report states that focus is required to adequately empower the institutions that govern India’s healthcare sector and making them answerable for health outcomes. It has recommended that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare needs to be strengthened in terms of both scale and scope and it also needs to be made more answerable for India’s poor health outcomes.