Gujarat's state-owned hospitals take a beating, as people increasingly depend on private facilities: Govt data

Non-hospitalized treatment: Urban reliance on govt hospitals (%)

By A Representative

Gujarat is all set to “beat” all Indian states in privatization of basic healthcare services, if the latest data, released by the Government of India, are any indication. Based on primary survey, the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) data show that just about 24 per cent in Gujarat’s rural areas and 15 per cent in urban areas receive non-hospitalized treatment in government hospitals, while the rest relied on private facilities.
The data, in fact, go to show that, the percentage of population getting non-hospitalized treatment in government hospitals in rural Gujarat has virtually stagnated over the last two decades and drastically gone down in urban Gujarat; but the all-India trend is moving in the opposite of this.

Thus, in 1996, 25 per cent of Gujarat’s rural areas got non-hospitalized treatment in government hospitals, as against 19 per cent in the country’s rural areas. The respective figure for Gujarat in 2004 was 21 per cent and for India 21 per cent; however, in 2014, it reached 24 per cent for Gujarat and 28 per cent for India.
As for the urban areas, 22 per cent of Gujarat’s population received non-hospitalized treatment in private hospitals in 1996, which went down to 18 per cent in 2004 and 15 per cent in 2014. However, the respective figures for India’s urban areas are 20 per cent in 1996, 19 per cent in 2004 and 21 per cent 2014.

Hospitalized treatment: The data further show that 76.6 per cent in the rural areas and 76.7 per cent of the urban areas received private hospitalized treatment in Gujarat in 2014, which is one of the highest in the country. The data show that all-India average on this score is 58.1 per cent and 68 per cent respectively.
The states where a higher percentage of people relied on private hospitals compared to Gujarat are Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh in rural areas, and Karnataka, Haryana, Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in urban areas.

What is equally interesting is that, in the age group 15-49, in Gujarat, 59 per cent of pregnant women in rural areas and 72 per cent of them in urban areas were taken to private hospitals for delivery in 2014 – which is the highest in India. The respective percentage for India is 24 per cent and 48 per cent, respectively.
The NSSO report, titled “Health in India”, and released this month, comments, “Reliance on the public sector for hospitalized treatment varied a great deal from state to state. The percentage of hospitalized treatments received from public sector hospitals varied from 19 (Maharashtra) to 89 (Assam) in the rural areas.”

It added, “Apart from Assam, two other states, viz., Orissa, West Bengal reported relatively high proportions of cases of hospitalized treatment from public institutions.” On the other hand, it said, “Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Telangana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh showed a high degree of reliance on private sector hospitals.”
“In the urban areas the percentage of hospitalized treatments received from public sector hospitals varied from 18 (Haryana and Karnataka) to 58 (Odisha). In Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana also higher extent of dependence on private sector hospitals is observed”, it said.

Comments

Covishield controversy: How India ignored a warning voice during the pandemic

Dr Amitav Banerjee, MD * It is a matter of pride for us that a person of Indian origin, presently Director of National Institute of Health, USA, is poised to take over one of the most powerful roles in public health. Professor Jay Bhattacharya, an Indian origin physician and a health economist, from Stanford University, USA, will be assuming the appointment of acting head of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USA. Bhattacharya would be leading two apex institutions in the field of public health which not only shape American health policies but act as bellwether globally.

Growth without justice: The politics of wealth and the economics of hunger

By Vikas Meshram* In modern history, few periods have displayed such a grotesque and contradictory picture of wealth as the present. On one side, a handful of individuals accumulate in a single year more wealth than the annual income of entire nations. On the other, nearly every fourth person in the world goes to bed hungry or half-fed.

'Serious violation of international law': US pressure on Mexico to stop oil shipments to Cuba

By Vijay Prashad In January 2026, US President Donald Trump declared Cuba to be an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US security—a designation that allows the United States government to use sweeping economic restrictions traditionally reserved for national security adversaries. The US blockade against Cuba began in the 1960s, right after the Cuban Revolution of 1959 but has tightened over the years. Without any mandate from the United Nations Security Council—which permits sanctions under strict conditions—the United States has operated an illegal, unilateral blockade that tries to force countries from around the world to stop doing basic commerce with Cuba. The new restrictions focus on oil. The United States government has threatened tariffs and sanctions on any country that sells or transports oil to Cuba.

Thali, COVID and academic credibility: All about the 2020 'pseudoscientific' Galgotias paper

By Jag Jivan The first page image of the paper "Corona Virus Killed by Sound Vibrations Produced by Thali or Ghanti: A Potential Hypothesis" published in the Journal of Molecular Pharmaceuticals and Regulatory Affairs , Vol. 2, Issue 2 (2020), has gone viral on social media in the wake of the controversy surrounding a Chinese robot presented by the Galgotias University as its original product at the just-concluded AI summit in Delhi . The resurfacing of the 2020 publication, authored by Dharmendra Kumar , Galgotias University, has reignited debate over academic standards and scientific credibility.

When a lake becomes real estate: The mismanagement of Hyderabad’s waterbodies

By Dr Mansee Bal Bhargava* Misunderstood, misinterpreted and misguided governance and management of urban lakes in India —illustrated here through Hyderabad —demands urgent attention from Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), the political establishment, the judiciary, the builder–developer lobby, and most importantly, the citizens of Hyderabad. Fundamental misconceptions about urban lakes have shaped policies and practices that systematically misuse, abuse and ultimately erase them—often in the name of urban development.

When grief becomes grace: Kerala's quiet revolution in organ donation

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Kerala is an important model for understanding India's diversity precisely because the religious and cultural plurality it has witnessed over centuries brought together traditions and good practices from across the world. Kerala had India's first communist government, was the first state where a duly elected government was dismissed, and remains the first state to achieve near-total literacy. It is also a land where Christianity and Islam took root before they spread to Europe and other parts of the world. Kerala has deep historic rationalist and secular traditions.

The Galgotia model: How India is losing the war on knowledge

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Galgotia is the face of 'quality education' as envisioned by those who never considered education a tool for social change or national uplift — and yet this is precisely the model Narendra Modi pursued in Gujarat as Chief Minister. In the mid-eighties, when many of us were growing up, 'Nirma' became one of the most popular advertisements on Doordarshan. Whether the product was any good hardly seemed to matter.

The 'glass cliff' at Galgotias: How a university’s AI crisis became a gendered blame game

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan* “She was not aware of the technical origins of the product and in her enthusiasm of being on camera, gave factually incorrect information.” These were the words used in the official press release by Galgotias University following the controversy at the AI Impact Summit in Delhi. The statement came across as defensive, petty, and deeply insensitive.

Bangladesh goes to polls as press freedom concerns surface

By Nava Thakuria* As Bangladesh heads for its 13th Parliamentary election and a referendum on the July National Charter simultaneously on Thursday (12 February 2026), interim government chief Professor Muhammad Yunus has urged all participating candidates to rise above personal and party interests and prioritize the greater interests of the Muslim-majority nation, regardless of the poll outcomes.

Search This Blog