1Guest Faculty of Economics, Maharajas’s College, University of Mysore, Mysuru.
Healthcare is the right of every individuals, but lack of quality in infrastructure, scarcity of qualified medical functionaries, and non-access to basic medicines and medical facilities thwarts its reach to 60% of population in India. A majority of 700 million people lives in rural areas where the condition of medical facilities is deplorable. Considering the picture of grim facts there is a dire need to ensure that quality and timely healthcare reaches the deprived corners of the Indian villages. Though a lot of policies and programs are being run by the Government but the success and effectiveness of these programs is questionable due to gaps in the implementation. Due to non accessibility of public healthcare and low quality of healthcare services, a majority of people in India turn to the local private health sector as their first choice of care. However, private healthcare is expensive, often unregulated and variable in quality. Besides being unreliable for the illiterate, it is also unaffordable by low income rural folks.
