India’s COVID-19 spike reveals a neglected public healthcare system.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a 48-hour warning for a strictly-enforced national lockdown on March 24th 2020, millions of migrant workers dominating India’s prevailing gig economy were forced to return home by foot, thousands of miles away. Many failed to survive the journey. Others, upon returning, were shunned from their village on account of the stigmatised fear that these workers were infected. Despite the difficult journey home imposed by Modi’s government, millions of these poor, unprotected workers represent the pillars of India’s successful economy. As India fell from the world’s fastest growing economy to the fastest shrinking economy during its April to June 2020 quarter on account of the country’s gig economy lockdown, COVID-19 has revealed that India must do more to provide better healthcare and sanitation for its poorest population.
Albeit unfortunate, India’s COVID-19 scare has provided a wake-up call to India’s elite regarding who truly controls India’s successful economy.
Yet, if the government’s current 1.13% GDP spending on healthcare is to be compared to its doubled 2.4% defence expenditure, Modi’s erstwhile priorities on global standing and a nationalist agenda are exemplified. As a result of the government’s healthcare neglect, India now has the world’s second highest COVID-19 infection rate. Without government subsidy, India remains the world’s most expensive country to produce a doctor and as a result, the country experiences a severe shortage of doctors, almost 1 doctor per 1000 people below the global average. Additionally, each hospitalisation costs individuals between Rs 23,821 ($323.9) and Rs 42,540 ($578.4). To put this into perspective, 77% of India’s population earn below $0.27 a day. On account of high costs, India’s poorest and most vulnerable are often denied treatment by private hospitals, reserved only for the richest who can afford to pay.
For several decades now, the Indian economy has served to benefit its richest. Since the country’s 1980’s and 1990’s trade liberalisation policies created a new elite who saw India as the home of building world class Indian companies on Indian soil with Indian capital, it is easy for this rich and powerful economic and political entity to become blind to reality. They can afford private healthcare and less-populated accommodation. Flying between their regional powerhouses, Bangalore and Delhi, they are insulated from the increasing inequality and breakdown of public services on the ground. That was, until the breakdown of the economy in April to June 2020.
Albeit unfortunate, India’s COVID-19 scare has provided a wake-up call to India’s elite regarding who truly controls India’s successful economy. With poorer workers on lockdown and at greater risk of infection, Modi’s government must realise that India’s economic success relies on the provision of basic human rights such as access to healthcare for its poorest workers. After all, research proves that more accessible healthcare services can improve worker productivity through increased life expectancy and reduced burden of disease, subsequently increasing human capital accumulation.
However, Modi’s $2 million PPE funding announcement in March 2020 is simply insufficient to overhaul the structural inequality inherent in India’s current healthcare system. Instead, there is no alternative but to focus upon a long-term sustainable strategy of increasing the health budget, building more government hospitals and encouraging the cheaper production of doctors and medical centres that are affordable to India’s 1.35 billion population. Anti-Dalit discrimination, untrained doctors and extortionate charges in India’s dominant private healthcare sector must also be regulated in order to play a greater, more representative public function. Additionally, the unsustainable strain of India’s rapid modernisation upon its environment and polluted rivers must be addressed in the long-term. What COVID-19 has certainly revealed is that for India to truly continue to thrive, the country’s status quo neglect of its healthcare system must end.
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