Adequate spending essential for health, education sectors

It pointed out that the country is behind not only China but also behind Sri Lanka in this regard. It showed the need for ‘much’ faster and wider spread of basic health and education in the country.

The report, tabled in Parliament on Thursday, said it was high time to bring in effective measures to improve the efficiency, ‘especially in the delivery mechanism’ of programmes in the two sectors, considering region-specific successes and failures in the past. “While fiscal prudence is important, development policies that aim at bringing the economy back on a higher growth trajectory and at the same time ensuring adequate spending on the social sector especially education, health care, and employment generation are equally important,” it said.

To reap the much-hyped demographic dividend advantage of India, better educated and healthy population ‘is a must.’ This called for more reforms.

There had been an increase in public health investment in the country. The combined revenue and capital expenditure of the Centre and the states on medical and public health, water supply and sanitation, and family welfare had increased from Rs 53,057.80 crore in 2006-7 to Rs 96,672.79 crore in 2010-11.

But the expenditure of the government on public health as a percentage of GDP was low, despite efforts by the government to provide affordable access to the decentralised public health system, the survey noted.

While a long-term vision and plans in mission mode were needed for the ‘timely harvest’ of the demographic dividend, the gap in available resources could be met by a tailor-made PPP mode of funding without diluting the regulatory oversight of the government, it suggested.

The government is about to roll out a mega health scheme focusing on universal health coverage. In the first step, the plan is to provide all essential medicines free in government health care facilities within next two years.

The survey appreciated the government’s National Skill Development Mission, saying it was a step in the right direction.  “The RTE Act must face no implementation deficit for it to work towards realising the demographic dividend. Similar reforms are needed in university and higher education and the demand-supply mismatch in the job market needs to be corrected.”

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