The Week: India's Post-COVID Challenges

Challenges Before India, Once COVID-19 Pandemic Is Over

The Week, Ashish Bharadwaj and Sumit Kaushik, 6 April 2020

(Image courtesy of The Week)

The COVID-19 pandemic brings to India the imminent danger of community spread, a challenge of internal labour migration and an economic recession that we have not even accounted for during this chaos. To manage our short and the long-term priorities, we need to galvanise efforts in public health, police, public order, sanitation and hygiene, all of which are constitutionally state subjects. Along with this, we absolutely need clear guidance, forethought and communication from the Union government, exceptional contribution and engagement by the private sector and an enormous amount of courage and patience by citizens.

India’s public health outlay has remained below two per cent of GDP for more than a decade now, which is almost one-quarter of what comparable nations, South Africa and Brazil, have been spending. The outcome of this is the perennial shortages of doctors, trained midwives, registered nurses, inadequate R&D and weak healthcare infrastructure. The reality is that India ranks 145th among 195 countries in terms of quality and accessibility of healthcare.