The Union Budget 2022-23, was presented by the Union Minister Shrimati Nirmala Sitharaman on the first of February this year. Being the third budget union under the shadow of COVID-19, the funds allocated towards the healthcare sector has been found to be quite disappointing. It has allocated a total of Rs 86,200.65 crores. Rs 83,000 crore and Rs. 3200.65 crore for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Department of Health Research, respectively. Despite the ongoing global COVID pandemic, which is far from over, this year’s budget did not see any significant increase in the allocation towards the health sector, unlike last year where she announced a 137 percent increase towards the health sector. The revised budget for the year 2021-22 is 86,000 crores which shows an increase of only 0.23 percent. While the last year’s budget signaled the importance of health and wellbeing, a similar prioritization of health is missing in this year’s budget, given that we are still in the midst of a third wave of the pandemic. The government allocated Rs. 226 crore as insurance scheme for healthcare workers fighting COVID-19, however it failed to allocate any funds towards the precautionary dose opening up for all adults. Further this year’s budget failed to provide any guidelines or initiatives towards the vaccination of children below the age of 15. There is also no mention for budget estimates for India’s COVID 19 Emergency Response and Health system Preparedness Package in this year’s budget. In terms of healthcare budgets, India ranks 179 out of 189 countries in prioritization accorded to health in its government budgets.
Although disappointing, the budget didn’t fail to include the healthcare sector in the budget highlights. The ongoing pandemic has helped accelerate the evolution of digital health ecosystem which is one among the four highlights in the healthcare sector of the union budget 2022-2023.It will consist of digital registries of health providers and health facilities, unique health identity, consent framework, and universal access to health facilities. The union budget has allocated Rs 200 crore for the National Digital Health Mission. The other three highlights in this year’s budget include.
1. National tele-mental health programme which will include a network of 23 tele-mental health centres with National Institute for Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) being the nodal centre, and International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT)providing technological support. This year’s budget is the first to address mental health and the government addressing this issue which is being faced by people of various age group, all caused by the pandemic, is commendable.However for implementation it might require integration with the national mental health programme and policy which is allocated with a total of Rs 40 crore.
2. Upgradation of 2 lakh Anganwadi centres to Sakshan Anganwadi. Sakshan Anganwadi are new generation Anganwadi centres that have better infrastructure and audio visual aids.The previous year’s budget for Saksham Anganwadi was Rs19999.55 crore and this year’s budget is 20,263 crores. Which is an increase of only 2.6 percent. According to Poonam Muttreja, executive director of population foundation of India, “schemes mentioned in the speech, such as Saksham Anganwadi, already exist and have seen almost no increase in their budget over the previous financial year. If we take inflation into account these budgets have declined.”
3. Mission Shakti, Mission Vatsalya and Poshan 2.0 are to be launched inorder to provide benefits to women and children. The budget allocated for mission Shakti is 3184.11 crores, for mission Vatsalya is 1472.17 crore and for Poshan 2.0 is 20263.07 crore.
Another key focus includes,the increased allocation to Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (Rs 10,000 cr,) and Human Resources for Health and Medical Education (Rs 7,500 cr,) which is bound to improve medical education infrastructure which indicates the efforts to bridge the shortage of healthcare workers which the country recently faced.
The Budget lacked incentives for the private sector to emphasise infrastructure development in terms of healthcare delivery. Furthermore, the much awaited reforms for ease in GST regulations for life saving drugs has been ignored. This year’s budget witnessed increased allocation in ongoing schemes and programmes initiated last year. Despite this, the budget missed the expectations of the industry to optimally allocate resources and fund critical areas of the healthcare system for preparedness against future health emergencies.
Degree of Thought is a weekly community column initiated by Tetso College in partnership with The Morung Express. Degree of Thought will delve into the social, cultural, political and educational issues around us. The views expressed here do not reflect the opinion of the institution. Tetso College is a NAAC Accredited UGC recognised Commerce and Arts College. The editors are Dr Hewasa Lorin, Dr Aniruddha Babar, Nisha Dahiya and Meren. For feedback or comments please email: dot@tetsocollege.org
