Health in India: Need for a paradigm shift

Abstract

Three of the Millennium Development Goals call for specific health improvements. This paper seeks to estimate how far the BRIC nations are from meeting their health MDG commitments. The factors responsible for India's poor performance on the health MDGs are poverty, illiteracy, gender bias, urban bias, poor quality health services and lack of access to proper health services. India has one of the lowest per capita health expenditures in the world and government health expenditure is completely inadequate. Improvements in public health require a paradigm shift in the government's approach to health.