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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | “44 % food grain never reaches the poor”

“44 % food grain never reaches the poor”

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published Published on Nov 21, 2011   modified Modified on Nov 21, 2011
-The Hindu
 
“If the law of the market is ignored, then no government policy, however well intended, is going to work”, Chief Economic Advisor to Government of India Kaushik Basu said at a conference on the Indian health sector here on Friday. He referred specifically to how 44 per cent of the food grain meant for the poor never reaches them through the Public Distribution System and said that this needs a change.

Delivering the inaugural address at the two-day meet, “Knowledge – evidence- action: striving towards better health outcomes”, organised by the Indian Health and Policy Association, Prof. Basu gave several examples where public policies failed because of bad economics.

“In the public distribution scheme, the low food grain is given to a network of small shops that are trusted with the delivery of these food grain to the poor. But, we know that 44 per cent of these food grain never reaches the poor,” he said adding that “the architecture of distribution'' be changed by giving “directly to the poor.”

The session was also addressed by Health and Family Welfare Ministry Secretary P. K. Pradhan and WHO representative in India Nata Menabde.

Mr. Pradhan spoke about the “wide variation in every State with regard to the types of health care that is needed'' and noted that “we cannot depend on insurance where private players are concerned”.

He also raised the issue of investments that were needed for the health care sector and the types of interventions that were needed for tackling diseases among the poorer sections of society. “We need to focus on early detection, early tackling and right time of intervention for communicable and non-communicable diseases,” he said, adding that these measures would go a long way in cutting down costs.

Growth story

Dr. Menabde felt that the investments in the health sector has to reach every section of society in India. “Those who have the resources pay for good health care. However, the poor have not benefitted from India's growth story,” she said, adding that her organisation did not know what health policy would work.

Holding the view that neither the European nor the US versions of health policy would work in India, she said the help of economists was needed to find solutions to these vexed issues.

Dr. Menabde also concurred with Prof. Kaushik that market forces could not be ruled out while devising good health policies.

The conference will have presentations on various themes related to health like health financing; health, poverty and other vulnerabilities; economic evaluation in the health sector; aid effectiveness; international agreements and their impact on the health sector; innovations for better health services; and health policy and federal structure.

The Hindu, 19 November, 2011, http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/article2641028.ece


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