Public Health Policy in India: Challenges and Critiques
Social Justice & Development
- PYQs8
- Articles1
Background
UPSC frequently examines the effectiveness, challenges, and reforms needed in India's social sector schemes, particularly health. This concept allows for critical analysis of government initiatives, policy design flaws, their impact on public welfare, and the realization of the demographic dividend.
Public health policies are crucial for a nation's demographic dividend and aim for universal health coverage. However, in India, recent policies have faced scrutiny for failing to be evidence-based, guarantee minimal health benefits, and improve access amidst rising private sector costs and poor public sector quality.
Facts & tables
- Shift from Population Health to Individual Well-being
- Policies like Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs) have shifted focus from population health outcomes to individual well-being, which is subjective, hard to measure, and places primary responsibility on individuals, often underestimating structural determinants.
- Limitations of Digital Health Initiatives
- The Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission (ABDHM) primarily creates data repositories (e.g., ABHA card, registries) but does not directly address fundamental challenges of inadequate healthcare infrastructure, affordability, or the actual provisioning of care.
- Weakening of Grassroots Institutions
- AB-HWCs merely renamed existing health sub-centres (SCs), primary health centres (PHCs), and community health centres (CHCs), creating ambiguity among professionals and policymakers regarding their actual mandate and diluting their original roles.
- Failure to Address Core Access and Quality Issues
- Inadequate access to healthcare in India stems from unaffordability in the private sector and lack of quality facilities in the public sector, issues that current policy initiatives are criticized for not adequately strengthening or addressing.
| Type | Reference |
|---|---|
| Conceptual area | Social Justice & Development |
| Conceptual area | Welfare Schemes & Social Policies |
| Conceptual area | Constitutional & Statutory Bodies |
| Conceptual area | Emerging Information Technologies |
| Body | Role |
|---|---|
| Ministry of Health and Family Welfare | Formulates |
| World Health Organization (WHO) | Defines standards |
Prelims angle
Prelims angle: Statement-based questions
Prelims angle: Multi-statement analysis
- Critique of AB-HWCs: Renaming, ambiguity, shift from population health to individual well-being.
- Critique of ABDHM: Data generation focus, limited impact on access/affordability, lack of measurable outcomes.
- Underlying issues: Unaffordability of private care, poor quality public sector, weak institutional mechanisms.
- Policy gap: Failure to strengthen India's three-tier public healthcare system.
- Need for evidence-based policies addressing people's felt needs over populist ideas.
Ministry sets policy; regulator often has quasi-judicial powers.
| Year | Framing tags |
|---|---|
| 2026 | Multi-statement analysis, Factual recall |
| 2024 | Multi-statement analysis, Institutional roles and functions |
| 2023 | Multi-statement analysis, Factual recall |
| 2023 | Statement-based questions, Multi-statement analysis |
| 2023 | Multi-statement analysis, Policy measures |
| 2022 | Multi-statement analysis, Factual recall |
| 2018 | Multi-statement analysis, Policy measures |
| 2016 | Multi-statement analysis, Policy measures |
Timeline
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Social Justice & Development
Conceptual area
-
Welfare Schemes & Social Policies
Conceptual area
-
Constitutional & Statutory Bodies
Conceptual area
-
Emerging Information Technologies
Conceptual area
-
Prelims 2016
Multi-statement analysis, Policy measures
-
Prelims 2018
Multi-statement analysis, Policy measures
-
Prelims 2022
Multi-statement analysis, Factual recall
-
Prelims 2023
Multi-statement analysis, Factual recall
-
Prelims 2023
Statement-based questions, Multi-statement analysis
-
Prelims 2023
Multi-statement analysis, Policy measures
-
Prelims 2024
Multi-statement analysis, Institutional roles and functions
-
Prelims 2026
Multi-statement analysis, Factual recall
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Reconnect public health with people’s needs
India's public health policies are critiqued for shifting focus from population health to individual well-being, failing to strengthen grassroots institutions, and relying on digital solutions without addressing fundamental issues of access, affordability, and quality in the three-tier healthcare system.
See also
No related topics linked yet.
Past papers
2016–2026 · 8 questions
In the news
Reconnect public health with people’s needs
India's public health policies are critiqued for shifting focus from population health to individual well-being, failing to strengthen grassroots institutions, and relying on digital solutions without addressing fundamental issues of access, affordability, and quality in the three-tier healthcare system.
Try these PYQs
Consider the following statements :
Statement-I :India's public sector health care system largely focuses on curative care with limited preventive, promotive and rehabilitative care.
Statement-II: Under India's decentralized approach to health care delivery, the States are primarily responsible for organizing health services.
Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?
* Statement I is correct: India's public healthcare system prioritises curative care, which focuses on treating existing illnesses. Preventive, promotive, and rehabilitative care, which aims to prevent diseases, promote good health, and help people recover from illness, receive less emphasis. * Statement II is correct: India's healthcare system follows a decentralised approach. The central government sets policies and provides financial assistance, but individual states are responsible for organising and delivering health services to their populations. This allows for flexibility based on local needs and contexts.
Therefore, the answer is Both Statement I and Statement II are correct.
Consider the following statements in relation to Janani Suraksha Yojana:
1. It is safe motherhood intervention of the State Health Departments.
2. Its objective is to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality among poor pregnant women.
3. It aims to promote institutional delivery among poor pregnant women.
4. Its objective includes providing public health facilities to sick infants up to one year of age.
How many of the statements given above are correct?
Statement 1 is incorrect: Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) is a 100% Centrally Sponsored Scheme under the National Health Mission (NHM). It is a central intervention implemented by states, not an intervention of the State Health Departments. Statement 2 is correct: The primary objective is to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality by encouraging safe, institutional births. Statement 3 is correct: The scheme provides a cash incentive to mothers to promote institutional delivery, particularly among those from BPL, SC, and ST households. Statement 4 is incorrect: While care for sick infants is a priority under the National Health Mission, the provision of free facilities for sick infants up to one year of age is specifically a feature of the Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram (JSSK) launched in 2011. JSY, launched in 2005, is primarily a conditional cash transfer scheme for delivery.
Which of the following is/are the aim/aims of "Digital India" Plan of the Government of India?
1. Formation of India's own Internet companies like China did.
2. Establish a policy framework to encourage overseas multinational corporations that collect Big Data to build their large data centres within our national geographical boundaries.
3. Connect many of our villages to the Internet and bring Wi-Fi to many of our school, public places and major tourist centres
Select the correct answer using the code given below
* Statement 1 is not correct: The formation of India’s own internet companies, similar to China’s approach, is not an aim of the Digital India programme. The initiative focuses on creating digital infrastructure, providing digital services, and promoting digital literacy — not establishing government-backed internet firms. * Statement 2 is not correct: The Digital India plan does not include any policy framework to attract foreign multinational corporations to build data centres in India. While data localisation and data centre policies have emerged later under different frameworks, they are not part of the original Digital India objectives. * Statement 3 is correct: One of the key aims of Digital India is to connect villages through broadband and to provide Wi-Fi access in schools, public places, and tourist centres. This is part of its core pillars like Broadband Highways, Public Internet Access Programme, and Early Harvest Programmes.
Consider the following statements in the context of interventions being undertaken under Anaemia Mukt Bharat Strategy:
1. It provides prophylactic calcium supplementation for pre-school children, adolescents and pregnant women.
2. It runs a campaign for delayed cord clamping at the time of child-birth.
3. It provides for periodic deworming to children and adolescents.
4. It addresses non-nutritional causes of anaemia in endemic pockets with special focus on malaria, hemoglobinopathies and fluorosis.
How many of the statements given above are correct?
* Statement 1 is incorrect: Prophylactic Iron Folic Acid supplementation (not Prophylactic calcium) given to children, adolescents, women of reproductive age and pregnant women, irrespective of anaemia is a key continued intervention. * Statement 2 is correct: Promotion and monitoring of delayed clamping of the umbilical cord for at least 3 minutes (or until cord pulsations cease) for newborns across all health facilities will be carried out for improving the infants iron reserves up to 6 months after birth. Simultaneously, all birth attendants should make an effort to ensure early initiation of breastfeeding within 1 hour of birth. * Statement 3 is correct: The Anaemia Mukt Bharat, also integrates deworming of women of reproductive age and for pregnant women as part of the NDD strategy. Bi-annual mass deworming for children in the age groups between 1-19 years is carried out on designated dates 10th February and 10th August every year under National Deworming Day (NDD) programme. * Statement 4 is correct: The Anaemia Mukt Bharat strategy attempts to intensify awareness and integrate screening and treatment for non-nutritional causes of anaemia with special focus on malaria, haemoglobinopathies and fluorosis.
With reference to Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, consider the following statements:
1. Private and public hospitals must adopt it.
2. As it aims to achieve universal health coverage, every citizen of India should be part of it ultimately.
3. It has seamless portability across the country.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission aims to provide digital health IDs for all Indian citizens to help hospitals, insurance firms, and citizens access health records electronically when required. Statement 1 is incorrect. Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) has not made it mandatory for adoption by private and public hospitals. Its adoption so far would be voluntary. Participation in ABDM is voluntary including for citizens. Participation of a healthcare facility or an institution is also voluntary and shall be taken by the respective management (government or private management). Statement 2 is incorrect. The aim of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission is to facilitate the ease of access to medical records and it is not been mandated to have every citizen as its part though the facility is available to every citizen on a consent basis. Statement 3 is correct. ABDM will have a national footprint and will enable seamless portability across the country through a Health ID Personal Health Identifier.
Show 3 more PYQs
With reference to ‘Initiative for Nutritional Security through Intensive Millets Promotion’, which of the following statements is/are correct?
1. This initiative aims to demonstrate the improved production and post-harvest technologies and to demonstrate value addition techniques, in an integrated manner, with a cluster approach.
2. Poor, small, marginal and tribal farmers have a larger stake in this scheme.
3. An important objective of the scheme is to encourage farmers of commercial crops to shift to millet cultivation by offering them free kits of critical inputs of nutrients and micro-irrigation equipment.
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
Statement 1 is correct. The Initiative for Nutritional Security through Intensive Millets Promotion aims to demonstrate improved production and post-harvest technologies in an integrated manner with a cluster approach. Statement 2 is also correct. Millets are mainly grown in regions of low annual rainfall and poor arid soil. It is inadequate, small, marginal and tribal farmers, who cannot afford costly irrigation practices, depend on the cultivation of millets. Hence these farmers benefit from the scheme and have a larger stake in this scheme. Statement 3 is not correct. There is no such provision to encourage commercial crop farmers to shift to millet cultivation.
Consider the following statements regarding World Toilet Organization :
1. It is one of the agencies of the United Nations.
2. World Toilet Summit, World Toilet Day and World Toilet College are the initiatives of this organization, to inspire action to tackle the global sanitation crisis.
3. The main focus of its function is to grant funds to the least developed countries and developing countries to achieve the end of open defecation.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
* Statement 1 is incorrect. The World Toilet Organization (WTO) is not an agency of the United Nations. It is an international non-profit organization. * Statement 2 is correct. The WTO is known for its initiatives like World Toilet Summit, World Toilet Day, and World Toilet College, all aimed at addressing the global sanitation crisis. * Statement 3 is incorrect. While the WTO advocates for improved sanitation and hygiene, its primary function is not to grant funds. It focuses on advocacy, education, and capacity building to achieve its goals. _Therefore, only statement 2 is correct._
Which of the following statements with regard to the persons with disabilities in India is/are correct ?
1. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, an Act passed by the Parliament of India in 2018, mandates reservation in education and employment, places a legal duty on Governments to ensure accessibility and non-discrimination.
2. The Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan focuses on achieving universal accessibility for Persons with Disabilities across three key domains — built infrastructure, transport systems and information and communication technology.
3. The National Divyangjan Finance and Development Corporation (NDFDC) is a public sector organisation set up by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs as a not-for-profit company to promote entrepreneurship among Persons with Disabilities (PwDs).
Select the answer using the code given below :
Statement 1 is Incorrect: The Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act was passed by the Parliament of India in 2016, not 2018. It aligns with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and places a legal obligation on governments to ensure non-discrimination and accessibility. It also mandates reservations for PwDs, such as increasing the quota to 4% in government employment and 5% in higher education. Statement 2 is Correct: The Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan (Accessible India Campaign) was launched in 2015 by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD). It focuses on achieving universal accessibility for Persons with Disabilities across three key domains: built infrastructure (barrier-free public buildings), transport systems (accessible railways, airports, and roads), and information and communication technology (accessible government websites and digital ecosystems). Statement 3 is Incorrect: The National Divyangjan Finance and Development Corporation (NDFDC) is a Central Public Sector Undertaking registered as a not-for-profit company to provide concessional financial assistance to promote entrepreneurship, self-employment, and higher education among PwDs. However, it was set up under the aegis of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, not the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Therefore, the correct option is B.