NEW DELHI: From providing free vaccine to battle cervical cancer to girls in the age group of nine to 14 years to open up more medical colleges in the country by utilising the existing hospital infrastructure and providing over 11 lakh ASHA workers insurance cover, indicates government’s push towards preventive healthcare.
However, the health sector saw an increase in allocation of just over 1% compared to last year.
A budget of Rs 90,657 crore has been allocated to the health ministry for the Financial Year 2024-25, seeing an increase of 1.6 per cent over last year’s budget.
According to the former Director of the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), Dr K S Reddy, “The increase in allocation for health is just over 1% compared to last year. The regular budget should invest more in protecting and promoting people’s health if we are to realise the vision of Viksit Bharat.”
In her interim budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “Our government will encourage vaccination for girls in (the) age group of 9 to 14 years for the prevention of cervical cancer.”
According to estimates, cervical cancer contributes to approximately 6-29% of all cancers in women. According to the Global Cancer Observatory 2020, the South East Asia Region (SEARO) accounted for a substantial portion of the global cervical cancer burden, with 2,00,000 new cases - 32% of the worldwide burden - and 1,00,000 deaths - 34% of global fatalities.
Although HPV vaccination has been licensed for use in India since 2008, it is yet to be included in the national immunisation programme. In June 2022, the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) recommended introducing the HPV vaccine in the universal immunisation programme with "a one-time catch-up" for adolescent girls in the 9-14 age group. India’s Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) last year in July granted market authorisation to the Serum Institute of India (SII) to manufacture indigenously-developed India’s first Quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus vaccine (qHPV) against cervical cancer.
The finance minister also announced that the government’s flagship health scheme, Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), touted as the world’s largest insurance scheme, will be extended to ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) and the nearly 14 lakh Anganwadi workers and helpers across India. Under the scheme, a coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh is offered to almost ten crore of India’s poorest families.
Welcoming this move, Dr Sarit Kumar Rout, additional professor at the Indian Institute of Public Health Bhubaneswar, told this paper that expanding the PMJAY-AB to the ASHA, Anganwadi, and helpers will provide them financial risk protection.
The finance minister also announced the opening of more medical colleges in the country by utilising the existing hospital infrastructure and formed a committee.
Reacting to this, Dr Rohan Krishnan, Chairman of FAIMA Doctors Association, said there is no need to open more medical colleges in India. “It is more important to fill up the posts and give jobs. There is a huge faculty shortage, and a major recruitment process from the government is required. There was a time when the government opened many dental colleges, and it led to a catastrophic effect on the dentists that they didn’t get job opportunities. We should focus on more research work, preventive medicine, and how to protect the people from getting various lifestyle diseases like cancer, diabetes, and other upcoming diseases.”
Among other health-related budget announcements, Sitharaman said the newly designed U-WIN portal, on the lines of the India-made Covid-19 vaccine management system Co-WIN app, described as a game-changer, will be rolled out "expeditiously." The new portal will document all vaccination and immunisation programmes in the country. Also, various schemes for maternal and child care will be brought under one comprehensive programme was also announced.