India is hurtling ahead in a lot of spheres, but when it comes to health the country is not performing well. Despite all the hoopla, India is at the bottom quarter among 188 countries in health performance, standing at 143. India’s poor rating has been revealed in a study published by ‘The Lancet’. India is placed below Comoros and Ghana in the first annual assessment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) health performance published in The Lancet. The study was released at an event at the UN General Assembly in New York.

ONLY PAKISTAN, AFGHANISTAN WORSE THAN US

The major challenges identified were related to childhood mortality rates, HIV and tuberculosis levels, air pollution and providing access to clean water. Only 45 countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Papua New Guinea performed worse.

The SDGs are 17 universal goals, 169 targets, and 230 indicators set by the United Nations in 2015 to guide a range of pressing problems including food and water security, poverty and climate change up to 2030. The SDGs are an offshoot of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were launched in 2000 with a target year of 2015. Health is at the core of the SDG with the third SDG aiming to “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all across ages. The data focused on 33 health-related indicators to measure progress and created the SDG index with a rating from 0-100. India scored 42, whilst Iceland was at the top with a rating of 85.

INDIA MUST IMPROVE HEALTH

Professor Stephen Lim from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington led the research with the help of 1,870 collaborators in 124 countries. “India must gear up its response to improve the health and well-being of its people.

MEET CHALLENGES IF ACTION PLAN DEVELOPED

The current review shows that we have done well in the area of providing access to skilled birth care and therefore it is possible for us to meet the challenges identified if we are able to develop a plan of action around it,” Jha said.

 

 

source: India Today