Public Health

Population of India: 1.13 billion (national estimates for March 2008)


With nearly one-third of its population under the age of 15, India has the potential to benefit from a huge 'population dividend' for the labor force of the future. However, this 'dividend' is at risk because a majority of India's young people live in poverty, are semi literate and unskilled, and are at risk to contract preventable yet debilitating diseases and fatal infections. Poor public health services further complicate the scenario as young people do not have access to adequate health care.

Health indicators show that women fare much worse than men in India. Their health illiteracy and lack of rights in concert with poor health services continues to fuel a vicious cycle of disease and premature death. From fetal selection for son preference to malnourishment and maternal mortality, female health indices are emblematic of deep socio-cultural discrimination that perpetuate inequitable health outcomes and impair their ability to live healthy lives.

This situation erodes India's productivity and economic gains because healthy women are key to healthy families and healthy families are key to a healthy economy.


India spends only 1% of its GDP on health, translating into $35 per capita. France spends 10.4% and Japan 8%.

A significant portion of the population receives inadequate or no health care, specifically 25.7% living below the poverty line and those who have only the public health system to rely on.

National Family Health Survey for 2005-06 estimates 453 deaths per 100,000 women; higher than Cambodia, Bolivia and Botswana

India accounts for 20% of the world's maternal deaths, witha woman dying every five minutes

20% of deaths of children worldwide under the age of 5 occur in India