Right to Education Act (RTE) implementation, which enabled a near-universal access to education, especially for the most vulnerable. Of the children enrolled in schools between 2007-2008 and 2012–13, 56% were girls, and 32% from disadvantaged groups of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The number of children out of school and dropout rates reduced substantially, though not evenly, across all social groups. Right to Health, similarly, could drastically improve the access of millions to a healthy life.
The draft National Health Policy formulated by the government in December 2014 aims to address the “urgent need to improve the performance of health system”, especially to address the high inequity in health outcomes and the healthcare costs that push over 63 million Indians to poverty. The policy proposes that the Centre enact a National Health Rights Act which will ensure health as a fundamental right, the denial of which will be justiciable. Now, the Centre needs to take seriously the Supreme Court’s directive to take a final call on the National Health Policy.
Society & Social Medicine Musings 