Gujarat officials complain: Powers given to us in 2005 to use health budget taken away recently

Gujarat government officials have complained that they do not have "enough freedom" to spend funds coming from the Government of India for upgrading the state's health services. Participating in an internal meeting with the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA), they said, "We were given this freedom in 2005 (a year after UPA came to power). But it was taken away recently."
JSA is an all-India network of NGOs working for promoting the concept of health for all, considering health as one of the essential human rights. Officials bemoaned this amidst Government of India, especially Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya, repeatedly insisting that state budgets should be increasingly decentralized.
Briefing JSA activists on the way the funds, provided under the National Health Mission (NHM), were being used for health facilities in the state, the officials told the meeting, called in Ahmedabad to "understand" budget making, that things have particularly turned bad because "it is impossible to utilize funds meant for a particular head for needs requiring more attention."
Pointing to other difficulties, one official said, "Earlier, the Government of India would provide 90 per cent of the funds under the NHM. However, this has gone down to 60 per cent now. Earlier, the mission director had the powers to use 20 per cent of its budget. But those powers have been taken away."
"Thus, the freedom that the officials enjoyed previously in utilizing funds is not there anymore", the official said, adding, "As a result of the curtailment of powers, things, village health committees are provided just about Rs 10,000, Primary Health Centres (PHCs) just Rs 1.75 lakh, Community Health Centre (CHCs) and sub-district hospitals Rs 5 lakh and district hospitals Rs 10 lakh."
The official admission of lack of powers to utilize funds came following JSA activists complained of poor health services in Gujarat. They highlighted how, despite having 3,000 PHCs, people in a large number of rural areas have to go as far away as 45 kilometres for get basic treatment. They added, that there is a "dire shortage" of physicians and health experts in PHCs and CHCs, as a result of which patients perforce have to travel to big cities for treatment.
Pointing out that, often, in the process, the patient passes away, on activist reported that in Amreli district in Saurashtra region, even in the district hospital does not have any gynecologist, pediatrician or anesthesiologist, one reason why patients cannot be treated in there.
"There is no blood bank facility in a large number of areas", complained another activist, adding, "As a result, it is impossible to bring down maternal mortality rate, which remains on a higher site."
Well-known budget analyst Mahinder Jethmalani, who heads Pathey Budget Centre in Ahmedabad, said that just about 0.75 per cent of the budget is spent on health services in Gujarat, which is "negligible", adding, "What is worse, even the budget allocation is not fully utilized."
Analyzing the latest 2016-17 budget, Jethmalani pointed towards "gross discrepancy" that exists between the spending for health in villages and cities. "While it is Rs 1,144 per capita in urban areas, it is just about 377 in rural areas", he said, adding, "For medicines just about Rs 45 per capita is being spent, as against Tamil Nadu, which spends Rs 65 per capita."

Comments

When Pakistanis whispered: ‘end military rule’ — A Moscow memoir

During the recent anti-terror operation inside Pakistan by the Government of India, called Operation Sindoor — a name some feminists consider patently patriarchal, even though it’s officially described as a tribute to the wives of the 26 husbands killed in the terrorist strike — I was reminded of my Moscow stint, which lasted for seven long years, from 1986 to 1993.

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

Environmental report raises alarm: Sabarmati one of four rivers with nonylphenol contamination

A new report by Toxics Link , an Indian environmental research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund , a global non-profit headquartered in New York, has raised the alarm that Sabarmati is one of five rivers across India found to contain unacceptable levels of nonylphenol (NP), a chemical linked to "exposure to carcinogenic outcomes, including prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women."

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Revisiting Gijubhai: Pioneer of child-centric education and the caste debate

It was Krishna Kumar, the well-known educationist, who I believe first introduced me to the name — Gijubhai Badheka (1885–1939). Hailing from Bhavnagar, known as the cultural capital of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, Gijubhai, Kumar told me during my student days, made significant contributions to the field of pedagogy — something that hasn't received much attention from India's education mandarins. At that time, Kumar was my tutorial teacher at Kirorimal College, Delhi University.

A sector under siege? War and real estate: Navigating uncertainty in India's expanding market

I was a little surprised when I received an email alert from a top real estate consultant, Anarock Group , titled "Exploring War’s Effects on Indian Real Estate—When Conflict Meets Concrete," authored by its regional director and head of research, Dr. Prashant Thakur. I had thought that the business would wholeheartedly support what is considered a strong response to the dastardly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Operation Sindoor.

Search This Blog