Rhetoric of Evasion

When the government of India announces a new health policy after 29 years the expectation is that it will first of all define the critical issues and then proceed to elucidate a perspective which will come to grips with the major issues and construct the path to a future where the health and well-being of the people of the country are adequately cared for. The draft National Health Policy 2001 (NHP-2001) is unfortunately a short-term, myopic and blinkered wish list with no indication of where health and health care are located in the government’s list of priorities. To call this a ‘policy’ statement is a misuse of the term. Its ‘policy’ prescriptions exhibit a complete lack of understanding of both the existing state of affairs and the needs of tomorrow....