1.9% allocation for health in Budget ‘not enough’

Reacting to the Health Budget, Dr Arun Mitra, president, Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD), said the allocation to health is far from meeting people’s health needs.

“The allocation for health is only Rs 98,311 crore rupees out of a total budget of Rs 50.65 lakh crore rupees. It means health has been allocated only 1.9% of the total budget. If we calculate the total amount of the Budget for our population of 146 crore, it comes to be only Rs 673 per person. It does not meet even the inflation during this period. It is a cruel joke with the people as we are among the lowest in health indicators and our public health spending is also among the lowest in the world,” he said.

Dr Shakeel Ur Rahman, general secretary, IDPD, said when the Finance Minister said they would increase seats in medical colleges but did not explain lack of faculty for the same. Already ghost faculty has been reported in medical colleges and on that basis, sub-standard medical colleges with poor quality education are being opened.