Daily News
India’s Measly Investment In Healthcare May Come Back To Haunt It
In an era dominated by information technology and the razzmatazz of a freewheeling existence, the health sector was considered pretty much passé. Now we know better.
With COVID-19 looming large over the country’s hapless denizens, the wisdom of investing a mere 1.15 percent of GDP in public health expenditure could come back to haunt the republic. The level of destruction that the coronavirus is going to inflict on India is still unclear, but suffice it is to say that real danger looms ahead. The record in public policy does not encourage optimism, and the government has reacted too slowly to the dangers inherent in the pandemic. To be sure, so has the rest of the world, including the USA, but each country’s case is different. If the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) COVID-19 testing is any indication, there is a lot of ground that needs to be covered. On the basis of about 15,000 to 17,000 tests this week, the Council has concluded that community transmission has not occurred! The sample size is tiny, given the country’s huge population, and it will not take us too long to figure out whether it has reached the community transmission stage; if it has, then good luck to all of us.
That India’s healthcare system is appalling, despite the undiluted commitment of its frontline and overworked medical staff battling all odds, is hardly saying anything new. What may appear to be shocking is that in the wake of the Wuhan outbreak, the government failed to sufficiently invest in COVID testing kits and protective gear for medical personnel. There was ample time to do so, but somehow the government lost an opportunity. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sounded the alarm bugle and as the Sunday evening utensil-beating revealed, the people have become alive to the imminent danger that the pandemic poses. However, there is ample evidence that tells us that India’s carefree society is entirely capable of thumbing its nose at what the world considers standard health practices. The tamashas on Sunday evening – from Kolkata to Mumbai – demonstrated that the more things change, the more they remain the same. Add to it factors that can welcome the coronavirus pandemic with open arms: Huge city slums with poor or no sanitation, a vast semi-literate population and the world’s largest incidence of malnutrition. Put together, it is a deadly, unbeatable combination.