The FM announced the launch of a national tele mental health program as the onslaught of mental diseases had increased during the pandemic. She also said the ‘one subject, one TV channel’ program would be expanded to aid students whose learning had been affected due to Covid-19 and necessitated lockdowns.
The government in its last Union budget had placed health and well-being as the first of its six pillars, and with India into its third year into the Covid-19 pandemic, that focus is expected to reflect in the Union Budget 2022-2023, as well. After the emergence of a highly-transmissible but milder variant of coronavirus, Omicron, in South Africa, India too has been witnessing its third wave of the pandemic, with an increase in cases that are now slowly beginning to dip. Now, it remains to be seen the kind of allocation the government provides to healthcare-related sectors and for vaccination, with the Economic Survey having classified the latter as a macroeconomic indicator.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in the Budget 2021-22, had announced a 137% increase in health allocation to Rs. 2.23 lakh crore (Rs. 2,23,846 crore) from the previous year’s budget estimate of over Rs. 94,000 crore (Rs. 94,452 crore) and a 118% increase from the previous year’s revised budget of over Rs. 1.02 lakh crore (Rs. 1,02,873 crore).
The Economic Survey tabled on Monday mentioned that although the pandemic has affected almost all social services, yet the health sector was the worst hit. Expenditure on health sector increased from Rs. 2.73 lakh crore in 2019-20 (pre-COVID -19) to Rs 4.72 lakh crore in 2021-22 (BE), an increase of nearly 73%. The Economic Survey also mentioned that Covid-19 vaccination should be treated as a macro-economic indicator since it is not merely a health response but is critical for opening up the economy, according to the Economic Survey 2021-22. The country crossed the milestone of administrating more than 156 crore doses of vaccines on January 16, 2022.
More than 88 crore people (93 per cent of the adult population) have received at least one dose and around 66 crore people (70 per cent of the adult population) stands fully vaccinated, the Survey pointed out. “Vaccination is not merely a health response but is critical for opening up the economy, particularly contact-intensive services. Therefore, it should be treated for now as a macro-economic indicator,” the Survey, tabled in Parliament on Monday, noted. It is to be seen the kind of budget allocation the government provides for the vaccination this year, even as it started the inoculation drive for teens aged 15-18 and also began to give out booster or ‘precaution’ doses for healthcare workers and those aged above 60 with comorbidities.
FM Sitharaman had in the last budget announced an allocation of Rs 35,000 crore for vaccination against the coronavirus disease. The Budget had mentioned a Rs 33,572 crore ‘provision of financial assistance to meet expenditure on Covid-19 vaccination’ in FY22.
Meanwhile, in addition to the National Health Mission, the Union Budget 2021-22 had announced the Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission, a Centrally Sponsored Scheme with an outlay of Rs 64,180 crore over the next five years to develop capacities of primary, secondary, and tertiary Health Care Systems, strengthen existing national institutions, and create new institutions to cater to detection and cure of new and emerging diseases.
Among the demands by experts for the healthcare sector, Dr. Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, managing director and CEO of Fortis Healthcare, told the Times of India that with Covid cases in India on rise again, hospitals in tier 2-3 towns must be equipped with diagnosis centres, ventilators, ICUS, critical care facilities, and oxygen plants.
“There is an urgent need to allocate a separate budget for a national campaign around preventive health, testing, and screening because these are critical to reducing India’s overall disease burden,” Raghuvanshi said, according to the report.
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