Indian Experts Urge Political Parties to Make Health a Fundamental Right
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NEW DELHI, Feb 25 (OneWorld) - On election eve, Indian health activists are urging politicians to curb unnecessary deaths in a country where two million children under the age of five die every year.
Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, or People's Health Movement - an umbrella body of over 100 Indian organizations working on health and other social issues - will meet with Indian political leaders next month on the eve of Parliamentary elections, slated to be held in April. They will urge political parties to raise the issue of health in their election manifestoes. "If we can at least get politicians to start talking about health, they'll do something about it," says Abhay Shukla of the Center for Enquiry Into Health and Allied Themes (CEHAT), a research center in the western Indian city of Mumbai, which is spearheading the campaign. The activists, who are organizing a public rally after discussions with political parties in New Delhi on March 12, seek to make the right to health a fundamental right of every Indian citizen. "Over the last 10-15 years, the policies of governments and international agencies have led to the worsening health of the poor," the umbrella body says in a statement. "In the name of liberalization and globalization, people's livelihoods have been threatened. As a result, poverty has increased and people's health has suffered," it says. The organizations launched their right to health campaign in India in September, 2000, which marked the 25th year of the international Alma Ata conference of 1978, where nations pledged to ensure "Health For All" by 2000. "The Indian government may have forgotten the pledge of Health For All by 2000, but the people have not," says Shukla. The groups' efforts are aimed at ensuring the poor in India have access to health care, which they stress is a right enjoyed only by the affluent. "There is a tremendous burden of unnecessary morbidity and mortality, which is borne almost entirely by the poor," says Shukla. For instance, tribal communities in India comprise only eight percent of the total population but account for 60 percent of all malarial deaths in the south Asian country. India has one of the highest infant mortality rates (IMR) in the world, but within the country itself, the poor have a much higher IMR than the rich. The death of children among the poorest is 2.5 times more than among rich Indians. The organization has also petitioned the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), a government-instituted autonomous body, to address the issue of the poor who have little access to India's health infrastructure. The group has compiled a list of 70 cases that underline the fact that health is denied to a majority of Indians. Prime among these is the case of a tribal in the western Indian state of Maharashtra who died of snake bite because local rural health centers and hospitals were not equipped with an anti-snake venom that would have saved his life. In another case, a woman in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh went to get herself sterilized, but died of tetanus instead. "The denial of health care is a human right violation. The State does have a duty to provide health care facilities for the people," Shukla emphasizes. "Unless right to health can be a legal entitlement and an operational reality, we won't be able to move very far," he says. The NHRC has also taken up the issue and is expected to hold public hearings in different parts of India starting in May this year. After the elections, the Jan Swashthya Abhiyan will lobby with federal and state officials and elected leaders for greater emphasis on health issues. According to CEHAT, the Indian government meets only 25 percent of health expenses incurred by a family, which bears 75 percent of the cost. It says that in four out of ten cases of hospitalization, the costs are borne by patients and their families by selling assets or taking loans. The experts stress that health for all in India, where the per capita health expenditure is less than half a dollar per person, is a feasible proposition. "India has all the ingredients required, including the third largest drug industry in the world, to be able to provide adequate health facilities to the people," Shukla points out. "What is needed is a reorientation in the health system with standardized treatment and pricing," he says. |
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