Views include those of Sankalp Sharma and Bill Gates
According to Sankalp Sharma, since independence, India’s healthcare systems have undergone a sea change. He is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Competitiveness, India.
He mentioned some statistics which according to him reveal a remarkable transformation:
- The life expectancy at birth has more than doubled from 32 years at the time of independence to 66 years in 2013.
- The Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) has almost reduced threefold to 40 per 1000 live births.
- India has also been successful in eradicating diseases like smallpox and polio.
But the successes end here, as in several areas much remains to be done:
- Almost half of the children under the age of five are stunted
- The immunisation coverage of DPT (diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus) in India is seven-tenths, which is comparable to sub-Saharan Africa
- Lifestyle diseases like diabetes and obesity are on the rise
- Almost 60 percent of the world population, which defecates in the open, lives in India