CSR: The Health Profile of India 2018
A healthy population can lead any country to the heights of progress and success. India has made significant progress in many health indicators. The country has seen an increase in life expectancy at birth, reduction of infant mortality and crude death rates, eradication of diseases such as smallpox, polio and guinea worm. However, it accounts for a relatively large share of the world’s disease burden.
In a recent report of India Council of Medical Research (ICMR), titled India: Health of the Nation’s States: The India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative (2017), it is observed that the disease burden due to communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional diseases, as measured using Disability-adjusted life years(DALYs), dropped from 61 per cent to 33 per cent between 1990 and 2016. In the same period, disease burden from non-communicable diseases increased from 30 per cent to 55 per cent.
The government of India publishes a National Health Profile (NHP) annually since 2005, which brings together all health-related information. According to the 2018 edition of this report, the country has seen significant progress in several areas.
Immunisation is one of them. The country has achieved immunisation coverage through Universal Immunisation Program which provides prevention against six vaccine-preventable diseases.
Apart from this, National health programmes have been playing a crucial role in tackling several serious health concerns, communicable and non-communicable diseases, over the last two decades. For example, deaths due to malaria in the country have reduced dramatically over the last two decades. In fact, India is striving to be a malaria-free country by 2027. To achieve this, the National Strategic plan for malaria elimination has been put in place by the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme. In order to achieve an effective implementation of this strategy, the focus of the programme is laid on district-level rather than State-level.
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