Health in India

The Constitution of India makes health in India the responsibility of the state governments, rather than the central federal government. It makes every state responsible for "raising the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties". The National Health Policy was endorsed by the Parliament of India in 1983 and updated in 2002. The National Health Policy is being worked upon further in 2017 and a draft for public consultation has been released. There are great inequalities in health between states. Infant mortality in Kerala is 12 per thousand live births, but in Assam it is 56.

According to World Bank, the total expenditure on healthcare as a proportion of GDP in 2014 was 4.7%.

According to a 2005 report, 60% of India’s children below the age of three were malnourished, which was greater than the statistics of sub-Saharan African of 28%. It is considered that one in every three malnourished children in the world lives in India. The estimates varies across the country. It is estimated that Madhya Pradesh has the highest rate of 50% and Kerala the lowest with 27%. Although India’s economy grew 55% from 2001–2006, its child-malnutrition rate only dropped 1%, lagging behind countries of similar growth rate.

Malnutrition can be described as the unhealthy condition that results from not eating enough healthy food.

A well-nourished child is one whose weight and height measurements compare very well within the standard normal distribution of heights and weights of healthy children of same age and sex.

Malnutrition impedes the social and cognitive development of a child. These irreversible damages result in lower productivity. As with serious malnutrition, growth delays hinder a child’s intellectual development. Sick children with chronic malnutrition, especially when accompanied by anaemia, often suffer from a lower learning capacity during the crucial first years of attending school. Also, it reduces the immune defence mechanism, which heightens the risk of infections.

Due to their lower social status, girls are far more at risk of malnutrition than boys their age. Partly as a result of this cultural bias, up to one third of all adult women in India are underweight. Inadequate care of these women already underdeveloped, especially during pregnancy, leads them in turn to deliver underweight babies who are vulnerable to further malnutrition and disease.

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Wikipedia