India’s Frail Rural Healthcare

The spread of Covid-19 has exposed the inadequacy of the Indian healthcare system, particularly in rural areas. India could have tackled the ongoing pandemic in a much better manner if the country had adequate healthcare facilities. Experts have pointed out that most health facilities are available only in big cities and even a Primary Health Centre appears a distant dream in most villages of the country. The people living in rural areas have virtually been left in the lurch. It is the result of poor government spending on health since Independence. As a result, only 3.2 government hospital beds are available per 10, 000 people on an average. In states like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra the availability of government hospital beds for per 10, 000 people is much lower than the national average. It is easy to understand why Maharashtra has been so severely affected by the ongoing pandemic as the state has a ratio of only two government hospital beds available per 10,000 people. This is despite the fact that it is one of the most economically solvent states in the country. People of Bihar are fortunate as Covid-19 did not spread as aggressively as it did in other states. All talks of progress in Bihar definitely appears hollow as the state could only offer 0.6 government hospital beds per 10,000 people. To make matters worse, the workforce available in the rural health sector is well below that recommended by the World Health Organisation’s (WHO). Moreover, the country has a shortfall of nearly 18 per cent at the Sub-Centre level. The country still requires 22 per cent more Primary Health Centres than it presently has. There is a 30 per cent shortfall in Community Health services too, with such figures it is inevitable that people living in rural India rarely get treatment from specialist physicians.

At the same time it is no easy task for a developing nation like India to provide quality healthcare facilities overnight, it requires huge investment. India tried to overcome this hurdle by introducing the National Health Mission, it is meant to provide adequate and affordable healthcare facilities to the people living in rural areas. The mission is not a failed one but at the same time it has not been able to achieve much. Chronic shortage of medical practitioners along with lack of medical equipment and medicines make it difficult to treat patients. Thus, treating the Covid-19 pandemic as a wakeup call efforts should be made to bridge the huge gap between urban and rural areas in healthcare facilities on a war footing. It is a prerequisite required to ensure that the huge rural population of the country does not fall prey to another pandemic. It should be remembered that if one percent of India’s rural populace is infected, then the existing healthcare system in rural areas will be overburdened. The spill over will be felt all across the country and thus India needs to stand as one and improve healthcare in each corner of the country.