Health Challenges
Though the government spending on health has increased over the last years and the been as important element in reducing poverty, much more attention is required of the poverty-health linkage. Child malnutrition and under-nutrition in particular, remains high, and improvements have been much lower than what would be expected given India’s pace of GDP growth. Besides inadequate access to public sector health facilities, there are also concerns with the quality of the services provided. This has resulted in an increase in the demand for private health care services, which create their own concerns given the wide differences in quality of private health care, high prices, which makes it unaffordable for many and high medical costs, which push many people into poverty. What is needed to meet this challenge is the complementarity between the high government spending in the health sector and reforms to improve accountability in service delivery, both by the private and public sector. Better regulation and oversight of private providers will play an important role. The design of the health insurance scheme, which the government is planning to toll out in the near future to improve access to health care, will be very critical to improved outcomes.
Regional disparities
Low- income states of Bihar, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh are behind other states on most social indicators. The Multidimensional Poverty index (MP) study report indicates that eight Indian states, namely Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, and West Bengal are home to 421 million multidimensional poor persons. Similarly disparities are evident in India at the inter- state and rural –urban level in the provision of basic services, which include water supply sanitation and clean energy.
Sanitation and drinking water-related challenges
Though the government spending on health has increased over the last years and the been as important element in reducing poverty, much more attention is required of the poverty-health linkage. Child malnutrition and under-nutrition in particular, remains high, and improvements have been much lower than what would be expected given India’s pace of GDP growth. Besides inadequate access to public sector health facilities, there are also concerns with the quality of the services provided. This has resulted in an increase in the demand for private health care services, which create their own concerns given the wide differences in quality of private health care, high prices, which makes it unaffordable for many and high medical costs, which push many people into poverty. What is needed to meet this challenge is the complementarity between the high government spending in the health sector and reforms to improve accountability in service delivery, both by the private and public sector. Better regulation and oversight of private providers will play an important role. The design of the health insurance scheme, which the government is planning to toll out in the near future to improve access to health care, will be very critical to improved outcomes.
Regional disparities
Low- income states of Bihar, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh are behind other states on most social indicators. The Multidimensional Poverty index (MP) study report indicates that eight Indian states, namely Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, and West Bengal are home to 421 million multidimensional poor persons. Similarly disparities are evident in India at the inter- state and rural –urban level in the provision of basic services, which include water supply sanitation and clean energy.
Sanitation and drinking water-related challenges
