‘Public health does not seem to be a priority in the budget’

“The budget allocation for the Department of Health and Family Welfare increased by 16.5 per cent over the last Financial Year 2021-22. Allocations for Central Sector Family Welfare schemes, which include the budgets for procurement and distribution of contraceptives to the states, have increased by 25 per cent from Rs 387.15 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 484.35 crore. However, it should be noted that there was 35 per cent decline in allocation for this component last year,” the statement read.

The National Health Mission (NHM) has been the government of India’s flagship health programme since 2005 and has played a crucial role in improving health outcomes in the country, according to the statement.

“The NHM budget has increased marginally by 1 per cent over the previous year from Rs 36,575.5 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 37,000.23 crore in 2022-23. This would put the burden of financing the programme on the states. While the relatively developed states have greater resources to invest in health needs of the population, the lack of support from the Centre will put the less developed states at a significant disadvantage,” the statement further added. In terms of healthcare budget, India ranks 179 out of 189 countries in prioritisation accorded to health in its government budgets, it said.

“Last year’s budget signalled the importance of health and well being by terming it as first of six pillars. It also focussed on strengthening three key areas, namely preventive, curative and overall well being. However, a similar prioritisation of health is missing in this year’s budget, especially as we are in the midst of a third wave of the pandemic,” according to the statement.

On the announcement of expansion of tele-medicine services for mental health problems, Prof Vikram Patel, Professor, Harvard Medical School, said it was a welcome step, “not least as it is rare for mental health care to be mentioned as a specific allocation in the annual budget”.

“Given that the National Mental Health Policy and Mental Health Care Act mandate that most mental health care should take place in community or primary care settings, I also hope that adequate allocation will be made in the general health budget towards building the workforce capacity in these settings to deliver mental health care and to realise the various provisions of the Act, such as supporting community health workers and persons with lived experience to engage with mental health care services,” Prof Patel said.