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NHRC chairman favours health as fundamental right

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Written By: Editorial Team | Published : November 7, 2013 12:04 PM IST

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Justice K.G. Balakrishnan Inaugurates The New NHRC Building In New DelhiNational Human Rights Commission chairman K.G. Balakrishnan on Wednesday advocated for the inclusion of the right to health in the list of fundamental rights.

'Making the right to health a fundamental right in the constitution would be an important way forward in improving the overall health services scenario and providing universal healthcare in the country,' an NHRC statement quoted Balakrishnan as saying.

The chairman was speaking on the last day of the two-day conference on 'Healthcare as a Human Right,' organised by the NHRC. (Read: Priority should be women and child health: NHRC)

Also Read

What ails India's healthcare system

Here are some of the major issues we need to tackle if we hope to one day become the nation that our freedom fighters and forefathers thought we'd become:

1. Woeful rural healthcare

Mahatma Gandhi had a dream that India would be a land of self-sustaining villages. "The true India is to be found not in its few cities, but in its seven hundred thousand villages. If the villages perish, India will perish too." The health scenario in rural India would've caused him great pain. The basic problem in this case is the lack of resources human or otherwise. Initiatives like the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) or a compulsory Bachelor of Rural Health Care (BRHC) course haven't made much headway.

Here are some of the stark facts about the lives of our rural brethren:

  • 50% of all villagers have no access to healthcare providers.
  • 37% are chronically starved
  • 10% of all babies die before their first birthday
  • 50% of all babies are likely to be permanently stunted due to lack of proper nutrition
  • 33% people have no access to toilets, while 50% defecate in the open

Source: Indiafacts.in and India Development gateway

2. Women's and Children's Health

According to a poll by Thomson Reuters, India is the worst place for women among G20 nations. Female foeticide, unequal rights, dowry killings, poor maternal health and lack of sexual education are just some of the reasons for the same. Here are few stark realities about women in India:

  • 12 million girls were aborted in the last three decades in India
  • Child marriage has a domino effect since this also leads to lowered education levels and lower levels of awareness
  • 45% Indian women are married before they turn 18. This results in early pregnancies, higher morbidity and mortality rates.
  • A mother dies every ten minutes in India

The children's healthcare situation is equally bad. While some diseases have been controlled to a large extent others continue to wreak havoc.

  • Over 1.25 million children die annually in India.
  • 48% of all children have stunted growth due to malnutrition.

With inputs from IANS

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Editorial Team

Editorial Team

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