DRESSING UP THE WOUND

The health budget this year flatters to deceive

- AMARNATH K. MENON

DESCRIBING ‘HEALTH AND WELLBEING’ as the first of six pillars on which the Union budget proposals rest, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced an outlay of Rs 2,23,846 crore for 2021-22. “A 137 per cent jump” on the face of it, it seemed the government had responded to the all-too-obvious gaps in the country’s public healthcare set-up, which had been thoroughly exposed in the pandemic year. But it soon came to light that Sitharaman had indulged in a bit of ‘magic maths’. To the health ministry’s allocation of Rs 71,269 crore, she has tacked on the Rs 35,000 crore set aside for Covid-19 vaccination, apart from Finance Commission grants of Rs 36,022 crore and Rs 13,192 crore, respectively, for water and sanitation and health (see accompanying graphic: Health & Wellbeing Outlay). She also announced a new Pradhan Mantri Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana, with a budget outlay of Rs 64,180 crore—to be spent over the next six years at an average of Rs 10,700 crore a year—to beef up the public health infrastructure. So, Sitharaman has combined several existing expense heads related to healthcare, not all managed by the health ministry and hitherto not accounted for as a part of the health budget.