With per capita allocation of Rs.638/- health budget a joke | IDPD

Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD)

Date: 23.07.2024

PRESS RELEASE

Reacting to the health budget Dr Arun Mitra – President Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD) has said that the allocation to health is far away from meeting the people’s health needs. The allocation for health is only 89287 cores rupees out of a total budget of 48.21 lakh crore rupees. This means health has been allocated only 1.8% of the total budget. If we calculate the total amount of budget for our population of 140 crore, it comes to be only Rs.638/- per person. This is a cruel joke with the people as we are among the lowest in the health indicators and our public health spending is also among the lowest in the world. Dr Shakeel Ur Rahman – General Secretary IDPD said that the government’s claim that they have increased the health budget by 13% is a bundle of lies. The budget allotment last year on health was Rs.88956/- crore which was later on revised to Rs.79221/- crore. They are calculating the increase from the revised budget while they have not mentioned any date of this revision bringing down the allocation to health. Going by the previous experience there is every likelihood that this year too the budget will be reduced after revision. Already 5.5 crore people are pushed to poverty because of out of pocket expenditure on health every year.

This shows the government’s total apathy towards health of the people and push towards further corporatisation of healthcare.

Dr Arun Mitra

President

Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD)
139-E, Kitchlu Nagar, Ludhiana – 141001
Email: idpd2001[at]hotmail.com