Outcome of the Kolkata Group Workshop held on February 18 and 19, 2011 At the ninth Kolkata Group workshop, chaired by Professor Amartya Sen, 45 participants from different walks of life, including social scientists, policy makers and development experts, convened to assess the dimensions of social equity in India, especially as related to poverty, elementary education, and health. The participants assessed that the benefits of economic growth over the past two decades,...

The world's growing riches seem to make little difference to over 100 million people globally as they slide into poverty every year because of healthcare costs. One of the unsolved conundrums in many countries is the inability to provide for universal healthcare coverage, despite economic growth and development. While the financial consequences of illness are severe for many in poorer countries that do not have appropriate systems in place, those...

Appreciating the country's commitment towards universalising health coverage for the people, health economist Robert Yates has said the country needs to increase its public spending on health either by health insurance schemes or taxation.“The entire exercise of constituting a high-level expert group on universal health coverage that India has undertaken has been done at an appropriate time when the economy is growing and the country is getting wealthier as a...

The out-of-pocket healthcare spending by Indians continues to push them further into poverty with the public spending on health is almost negligible, according to the India Health Report 2010. Studies have documented that households in India spend a disproportionate share of their consumption expenditure on health, with the contribution from government being almost negligible. Public spending on health is very low, stagnant at about 1 per cent of GDP, putting India...

Governments in India — Centre and states — spend around one per cent of the country's GDP on health. Only five countries — Burundi, Myanmar, Pakistan , Sudan and Cambodia — have a lower figure than this. But private spending on the crucial sector is 4.2 per cent of GDP, among the top 20 countries in the world. Within this private spend, employers pay for about 9 per cent and...