Healthcare in India features a universal health care system run by the constituent states and territories of India. The Constitution charges every state with "raising of 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.
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47% of India’s children below the age of three are malnourished, almost twice the statistics of sub-Saharan African region of 28%.[1] World Bank estimates this figure to be 60 million children out of a global estimated total of 146 million.[2] Although India’s economy grew 50% from 2001–2006, its child-malnutrition rate only dropped 1%, lagging behind countries of similar growth rate.[3] Malnutrition impedes the social and cognitive development of a child, reducing his educational attainment and income as an adult.[3] These irreversible damages result in lower productivity.[3]
Approximately 1.72 million children die each year before turning one.[4] The under five mortality rate and infant mortality rate indicators have been declining comparing years 1970 and 2002 (202 to 90 & 192 to 68 per thousand live births respectively).[4] However, this rate of decline is slowing. Reduced funding for immunization leaves only 43.5% of the young fully immunized.[3] Infrastructures like hospitals, roads, water and sanitation are lacking in rural areas.[5] Shortages of healthcare providers, poor intra-partum and newborn care, diarrheal diseases and acute respiratory infections, also contribute to the high infant mortality rate.[4]
Diseases such as dengue fever, hepatitis, tuberculosis, malaria and pneumonia continue to plague India due to increased resistance to drugs.[6] India is ranked 3rd among the countries with the most number of HIV-infected.[7] Diarrheal diseases are the primary causes of early childhood mortality.[8] These diseases can be attributed to poor sanitation and inadequate safe drinking water in India.[9]
As more than 122 million households have no toilets and 33% lack access to latrines, over 50% of the population (638 million) defecates in the open.[10] This is relatively higher than Bangladesh and Brazil (7%) and China (4%).[10] Although 211 million people gained access to improved sanitation from 1990–2008, only 31% uses them.[10] 11% of the Indian rural families dispose of child stools safely whereas 80% of the population leave their stools in the open or throw them into the garbage.[10] Open air defecation leads to the spreading of diseases and malnutrition through parasitic and bacterial infections.[11]
Access to protected sources of drinking water has improved from 68% of the population in 1990 to 88% in 2008.[10] However, only 26% of the slum population has access to safe drinking water[11] and 25% of the total population has drinking water on their premises.[10] This problem is exacerbated by falling levels of groundwater, caused mainly by increasing extraction for irrigation.[10] Insufficient maintenance of the environment around water sources, groundwater pollution, excessive arsenic and fluoride in drinking water pose a major threat to India's health.[10]
The Indian healthcare industry is seen to be growing at a rapid pace and is expected to become a US$280 billion industry by 2020.[12]
Rising income levels and a growing elderly population are all factors that are driving this growth. In addition, changing demographics, disease profiles and the shift from chronic to lifestyle diseases in the country has led to increased spending on healthcare delivery.[13]
In order to meet manpower shortages and reach world standards India would require investments of up to $20 billion over the next 5 years.[14]
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