http://www.scribd.

com/doc/30755461/Health-Care

India pledged along with other WHO member Nations, 'Health for All by the Year 2000' at Alma-Ata in 1978; and in the same year signed the International Covenant for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Article 12, in which the State is obliged to achieve the highest attainable standard of health. However the health scenario in India is abysmal. In India, annually 22 lakh infants and children die from preventable illnesses; 1 lakh mothers die during child birth, 5 lakh people die of Tuberculosis. Diarrhoea and Malaria continue to be killers while 5 million people are suffering from HIV/AIDS. In context of poverty, access to public health systems is critical. However, since 1990s, the public health system has been collapsing and the private health sector has flourished at the cost of the public health sector. Health policy in India has shifted its focus from being a comprehensive universal healthcare system as defined by the Bhore Committee (1946) to a selective and targeted programme based healthcare policy with the public domain being confined to family planning, immunization, selected disease surveillance and medical education and research. The larger outpatient care is almost a private health sector monopoly and the hospital sector is increasingly being surrendered to the market. The decline of public investments and expenditures in the health sector since 1992 has further weakened the public health sector thus adversely affecting the poor and other vulnerable sections of society. Introduction of user fees for public health services in many states has further reduced their access to health services. The time has come to reclaim public health and make a paradigm shift from a policybased entitlement for healthcare to a rights based entitlement. For this healthcare has to become a political agenda. The above and related issues have been discussed at great length, with solid evidence and within a historical context in an edited volume published by CEHAT titled Review of Healthcare in India. The book includes six sections across 400 pages including critical topics like health policy making in India, public health services in India, communicable diseases, community health programs, population policies, mental health, children's health, reproductive health, Indian systems of medicine, healthcare financing, the private health sector, inequities in healthcare access, availability of drugs, right to healthcare and legal issues and an elaborate statistical appendix covering health status, health infrastructure and personnel and health expenditures. The authors include Ritu Priya, Mohan Rao, Ravi Duggal, T. Sundararaman, S. Srinivasan, Anant Phadke, Rama Baru, TR Dilip, Leena Gangolli, SV Joga Rao, Leena Abraham, Abhay Shukla, Vandana Prasad, Padma Deosthali, Poornima Maghnani, Rakhal Gaitonde, Aparna Joshi and the SAMA team. The Preface

has been written by B. Ekbal, the National Convenor of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan and the volume has been edited by Leena Gangolli, Ravi Duggal and Abhay Shukla.

Review of Healthcare in India Contents

SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION Introduction to Review of Healthcare in India - Ravi Duggal and Leena V. Gangolli SECTION 2: PUBLIC HEALTH POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES Historical Review of Health Policy Making - Ravi Duggal Public Health Services in India: A Historical Perspective - Ritu Priya Programmes for Control of Communicable Diseases - Leena V. Gangolli and Rakhal Gaitonde New Initiatives in the Immunization Programme - Anant Phadke Community Health Worker Programmes and The Public Health System - T. Sundararaman The Way the Wind Blows: Population Policies in India - Mohan Rao Mental Health in India: Review of Current Trends and Directions for Future - Aparna Joshi SECTION 3: HEALTH CARE ISSUES RELATED TO WOMEN AND CHILDREN

 The State of Preventive Health and Nutritional Services for Children - Vandana Prasad Reproductive Health Services: The Transition from Policy Discourse to Implemention - Sama Team Gender-based Violence and the Role of the Public Health System - Padma Deosthali and Poornima Maghnani SECTION 4: HEALTH SYSTEMS AND RESOURCES Indian Systems of Medicine (ISM) and Public Healthcare in India - Leena Abraham Public Health Expenditures, Investment and Financing Under the Shadow of a Growing Private Sector - Ravi Duggal Extent of Inequity in Access to Health Care Services in India - T.R. Dilip Private Health Sector in India: Raising Inequities - Rama Baru Fundamental Right to Health and Health Care - S.V. Joga Rao Availability of Drugs in India - S Srinivasan SECTION 5: CONCLUSION Reclaiming Public Health: An Unfolding Struggle for Health Rights and Social Change Abhay Shukla SECTION 6: STATISTICAL APPENDIX Appendix: Statistical Tables - Prashant Raymus Contribution Price: India International

Hard Bound Soft Bound Postage Extra

Rs. 500/Rs. 250/-

US $ 40 US $ 25

For copies you can write to us at cehat@vsnl.com or Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes Survey No. 2804 & 2805, Aram Society Road, Vakola, Santacruz (East), Mumbai - 400 055 Tel. : 91-22-26673571 / 26673154 Fax : 22-26673156 Website : www.cehat.org