The first assessment of health-based objectives in terms of the UN&’s sustainable development has few bouquets to offer to India. The reality in the social sector chimes oddly with the proud boast of GDP figures and an ascendant economy. The latest data is suggestive of what health experts say are the “multiple tasks” that are yet to be accomplished, ranging from malaria to potable water, sanitation and external pollution, not to forget the spurt in potentially mortal dengue and chikungunya even in the national Capital. The sclerosis in healthcare would appear to be endemic and ought to be contextualised with the “report card” that has ranked India at 143 out of 188 countries, and in the company of Ghana and Comoros, Senegal and Haiti. Not to put too fine a point on it, the quality of life is scarcely different from certain parts of chronically under-developed Africa. Given the “lack of effective optimal universal health care”, the country ranks below Brazil, China, South Africa, even Sri Lanka. This is the distressing truth that shall not be obfuscated by the high-falutin speeches at the forthcoming BRICS summit to be hosted in salubrious Goa. Hence the lament of one of the co-authors of the report and a specialist associated with the Public Health Foundation of India — “India&’s scores tell us that steady economic progress does not necessarily translate into better health outcome for all”. Healthcare is as decrepit as “universal” compulsory education. Successive governments have failed and failed abysmally in the two critical parameters of public policy, and the high-minded discourse over growth and/or development has little or no meaning to hoi-polloi.

The study, intrinsically an international feedback on the UN&’s theoretical objectives, was conducted by the Institute of Health Metrics, University of Washington. There is a lesson to be drawn by the comity of nations that relatively tiny Iceland, despite its inhospitable climate, has topped the list of 188 — one rank above Singapore and four notches above the United Kingdom. Eyebrows are unlikely to be raised over the fact that the Central African Republic has ranked lowest in the list. But our first concern is India and fearsome indeed is the disconnect between healthcare and the country&’s orchestrated economic progress. Rightly has the survey observed that the findings are “contrary to what might have been expected and this should prompt further investigation on why countries are under-performing”. Overlooked is the bitter irony that medicare in this country is for those who can afford it.