One health policy and uniform health-related schemes are unlikely to work in all the states. Discuss the above statement with respect to the key findings of India: Health of Nation’s States Report.
Refer – The Indian Express
IAS Parliament 6 years
KEY POINTS
· India: Health of Nation’s States Report fulfilled the long pending comprehensive assessment of every major disease across all states of the country.
· The report addresses the longstanding grievance by the policy makers, about the paucity of data on India’s disease burden.
· The report highlighted the significant variation in the burden from leading diseases and risk factors between states that have physical proximity and are at similar levels of development and epidemiological transition.
· The report shows this by comparing different pairs of states such as Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura, and Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.
· For example: Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa and Punjab have become hubs of non-communicable diseases.
· Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Uttarakhand have been worst affected by communicable diseases and malnutrition.
· The large-scale variation in the disease patterns across the country means that one health policy and uniform health-related schemes are unlikely to work in all the states.
· The report suggest that the chances of improving India’s overall health targets will go up significantly if the biggest health problems and risks in each state are tackled with a targeted approach, instead of a more generic one.
Way Ahead
· The report can be gainfully utilised for data-driven and decentralised health planning and monitoring recommended by the National Health Policy 2017 and the NITI Aayog Action Agenda 2017-2020.
