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Public Healthcare System In India – APSC Mains Essay

(Essay submitted in APSC Mains Essay Writing Contest 2019 – Essay Topics for week 5)

Public Healthcare System In India by Kiriti Dehingia

Health is the real wealth of a society. Therefore, in India, primarily in order to focus on health care for British citizens, the modern public healthcare system was initiated during colonial period. After independence also, the government of India has been taking various steps to develop the public healthcare system till now.

The public healthcare system in India is organized into primary, secondary and tertiary levels. There are Sub-Centres(SCs), Mini Primary Health Centres (MPHCs) and Primary Health Centres(PHCs) at the primary level. Community Health Centres(CHCs) and smaller Sub-District Hospitals are the secondary level. The Medical Colleges and the District/ General Hospitals provide tertiary care.

An SC serves extremely rural areas having population of 5000 people (or 3000 in a remote and dangerous location). Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) and Multipurpose Worker (MPW) are manned at HWCs. Recently, Community Health Officers (CHOs) are also being appointed at some SCs. Along with primary medical care and immunization, SCs also educate people about healthy habits.

MPHCs and PHCs are manned by Doctors, Pharmacists, Laboratory Technicians, General Nurse Midwives (GNMs), ANMs and other health workers. PHCs serve more developed rural areas having population of 30000 or more (or 20000 in remote areas). SCs refer patients to PHCs in case of complexity.

CHCs serve 120000 people in urban areas (or 80000 people in remote areas). Critical patients are referred from MPHCs and PHCs to CHCs.

Medical Colleges and district hospitals are the final referral units for the primary and secondary levels of the public healthcare system.

In order to improve the healthcare system in India, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has been adopting various initiatives that affect all people  in India, e.g.: National Health Mission(NHM), Ayushman Bharat, National Mental Health Programme, National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme, National Leprosy Control Programme, DOTS, ASHA etc.. The National Health Policies are being published by the government for betterment of public health. The first of its kind was that of 1983 and the last being that of 2017. NHM is strengthening SCs as Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs).

In spite of all this, the health scenario in India is not up to the mark in comparison to the developed countries. Some of the causative factors of this deplorable condition are: low quality care, corruption, lack of accountability, unethical care, economic barriers to access the services, insufficient man-power etc.

If the public healthcare system has to be successful in India, the government along with general public and health professionals should come together. The health institutions should be staffed with sufficient man-power. The people in general and the students in particular should be taught how to remain healthy, maintain personal hygiene and about preventive measures against various diseases. All should keep in mind that –‘Prevention is better than cure’.

In conclusion, if all efforts from various angles are put together, the public healthcare system in India may be expected to compete with that in the developed countries, in near future.

[ 490 Words ]

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AFSPA Act is a needed legislation or a misused power – APSC Mains Essay

(Essay submitted in APSC Mains Essay Writing Contest 2019 – Essay Topics for week 5)

AFSPA Act is a needed legislation or a misused power By Surajeet

Introduction– AFSPA was introduced to give the armed forces the power to maintain public order in disturbed areas. Under the act, the forces have the power to prohibit a gathering of five or more persons in an area.

Further the forces have the power to open fire after giving a due warning, if it felt that a person is not obeying the law. The Army can also arrest a person without a warrant, if reasonable suspicion exists.

The powers to carry out a search without warrant and ban possession of firearms are also some of the provisions under the act.
The act was passed by both houses of Parliament and approved by the President of India on September 11, 1958. Under Section 3 of the act. Under this section, the Centre or Governor of a State can declare the entire state or part of it as a disturbed area.

Misuse of power? – AFSPA has been implemented in many states and revoked in the due course of time from many states till date. There have been a number of instances of misuse of the power provided by virtue of the Act.  According to the Extra Judicial Execution Victim Families Association (EEVFAM) – the petitioner in the present Supreme Court case – and human rights activists, such a huge number of killings took place in Manipur due to the shield provided by the AFSPA. Noted activist Irom Sharmila led long Gandhian battle against AFSPA .  The three civilians of Baramulla (J&K) were shot by Indian army at Machil sector in Kupwara district of J&K on 30^th April, 2010 and were framed as ‘foreign militants’. However, later with the protest and inquiry, it was established that these persons were civilians and were called by the army to provide them jobs of porters and later were killed in a staged encounter. On 29th May 2009 in Shopian (J&K), two women named Aasia and Neelofar went missing from their orchard on their way back to home. Their dead bodies were found the next day. The people alleged that it was a case of murder and rape by security forces that were camped nearby.

The J.S. Verma committee while looking into legal reforms related to violence against women called for a review of the AFSPA. The committee noted that “impunity for systematic or isolated sexual violence in the process of internal security duties is being legitimised by the AFSPA” and “women in conflict areas are entitled to all the security and dignity that is afforded to citizens in any other part of our country”. While implementation, the Central government had taken into consideration many of the Verma committee suggestions and adopted the recommendations subsequently in an Anti-Rape bill. But, sadly, it left out the suggestions related to AFSPA. As per the criticisms to AFSPA, we know that there is a need to take some steps towards the prevention of misuse of the Act so that the purpose behind the enactment of the Act is not defeated. Reviewing the Act and making modifications to it is the need of the hour to stop atrocities against women, perpetually happening in the areas where AFSPA prevails.

In my opinion AFSPA should remain in all disturbed areas provided there must be a strong supervision in delivery of these powers by army.

[ 550 Words ]

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Can India reap the benefit of its demographic dividend – APSC Mains Essay

(Essay submitted in APSC Mains Essay Writing Contest 2019 – Essay Topics for week 2)

Can India reap the benefit of its demographic dividend?

By Bandeep Rabha

Demographic dividend is the phenomenon of accelerated economic growth which can occur when there is a high percentage of working age population relative to the non-working age population. A high percentage of young people engaged in work can fetch a high growth of economy of a country as well as increase its per capita income. But the working age people need to be equipping with required skills.

The developed countries had already witnessed their demographic dividend in the past and now the countries from Latin America and Asia are reaping benefits of the demographic dividend.

India is undergoing a major demographic transition with more than 60 percentage of its youth in the working age group at present and is soon going to attain peak demographic dividend. By 2020, the median age in India will be 28 compared to 37 in China. While China has already exploited its demographic dividend, India is yet to exploit.

As observed by United Nations People Fund (UNFPA) window of opportunity of demographic dividend is highest for India which is 50 years from 2005-06 to 2055-56. And the window is available at different time for different states because states population policy differed. This longer span of demographic dividend window will be a booster for economic growth of India.

Seeing at the statistics of India’s population pyramid shift, one can tell that India will have a presence of stable labour force. There will be more investment on human and physical infrastructure than on children and schools. Young women workforce would increase. The increase working people means more savings in an economy and bulging of the middle class society. These all will lead to higher consumption and the rate of GDP of India will increase.

But demographic dividend can also transform into curse if India cannot create enough jobs to absorb the working age population. De-industrialization, de-globalization, the fourth industrial revolution and technological progress could affect the job scenario to great extent. India’s human capital base is very low and in future it might not be able to reap benefits of the demographic dividend. A large number of youth in India are illiterate, unskilled and there are social and gender discrimination which hinders in human capital formation.

The question is whether India can reap the benefits of the demographic dividend. The female labour force participation in India has fallen to 26% in 2018 from 36.7% in 2005, says a Deloitte report. Given that female makes about half of India’s population, their extremely low participation make a negative effect to the growth of country’s economy. World Bank 2017 report observed that only 2.3 percentage of the total workforce has formal skill training. Given that the working age population grows by an estimated 23 million a year, only 42-43% joins the labour force.

Demographic dividend is time bounded and India’s policy maker should promote human capital formation by providing high quality education, reduce poverty, and achieve gender equality. Skill development and job creation needs to be prime priority if India wants to reap the demographic dividend benefits.

[ 500 Words ]

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