As a matter of constitutional obligation of a modern democratic
country, the Government of India must ensure universal healthcare,
primary education, apart from other basic amenities and social
security for all citizens as these are fundamentally non-negotiable
human rights indispensable for a dignified living.
Many of the democratic countries of the world featured in top rank of
human development index have taken measures for realisation of these
rights for their people. Whichever economic system in prevalence,
either capitalist or socialist, globally it is agreed that these
rights are the basic foundation to build an inclusive democratic
society and also for achieving social progress and economic growth.
These rights are also vital for promoting quality human resources and
providing scope of equality in matter of basic living standard. But
unfortunately, India as a country still remains in the bottom of human
development index as it is very slow in reaching out to all people
with a universal approach.
We do not have a universal uniform quality education opportunity for
all our children .There are existence of many types of schools mostly
hierarchical as per fee structure, facility and social –economic
status. Still many of our children are out of school and many remain
dropouts, while the adults remain illiterate, unaware about the value
of education. The global education monitoring report of UNESCO says
that economic inequality will keep the world away from achieving
education for all in the near future. In the projected year of
universal attainment of primary education, India is predicted to
achieve universal primary education by the year 2050 that is ten years
after Brazil and 45 years after China have done it. Countries with
best education system include USA, UK, Canada, Germany, Australia,
Denmark, Finland, Nederland, Japan and Russia, etc.
Next to education, universal healthcare is equally important for any
civilized society that cannot see its citizens dying without proper
health intervention. Many of the developed and developing countries of
the world whether it is socialist Cuba or capitalist Germany and
developing countries such as Brazil have developed a well-built public
healthcare system that ensures health entitlement to all. The
healthcare system in Brazil is free and having universal access to all
and guaranteed under the constitution since 1988. India is committed
to achieve universal healthcare by 2030. Many of our healthcare
schemes such as PMJAY are selective and have not been able to cover
all the deserving population. Still we lack adequate resources,
infrastructure and manpower to realise the goal of health for all
sections of people in spite of their income, social category and place
of living.
The other important area is availability of basic amenities which are
very much linked to quality of life of the people in modern days.
Unfortunately, still a major part of our households in rural and urban
areas have very limited access to basic amenities such as good housing
,drinking water ,toilet ,electricity and other facilities. Some of
them have no homestead land to go for a decent permanent living with
family. Still people travel a long distance to collect water and
defecate in open. They manage without tap water and 24- hour
electricity. The very poor living condition bars children in many
families from getting quality education. Poverty also paves the way to
increasing risk to many diseases. The poor living condition
contributes to low productivity as the poor health condition of
workers remain always an issue.
The international social security reports and the Allianz global
investor’s pension sustainability index says that India has a very
weak in providing social security to the citizens compared to Brazil,
China, South Africa and Russia. These countries have good insurance
system. In countries such Germany and Brazil, social security is a
right, assured by the constitution. Social security in India is not
universal; rather it is selective and covers a smaller part of our
society. There is also huge inequality in the award of benefits and
also gaps in access to such benefits. The rich and higher income
groups have more benefits of social security than the poor and low
income groups.
There must be universal social security for all and a basic minimum
standard of support for all out of the State fund. Majority of our
household below poverty line still depend on free food for survival.
There is an increase in orphanages and old age homes while distress
migration remains high in many parts of the country due to lack of
basic social security provisions.
The implementation of universal health, education, basic amenities and
social security schemes will create huge employment in service sector
and change the quality of living.
It will bridge socio-economic gaps, end social barriers and outdated
beliefs based on fanatic ideas. In a constitutionally driven federal
structure like ours, both the Central and State Governments have equal
responsibility in ensuring the basic entitlements for all. We have to
follow the mandate of our Constitution. It is good that a few States
such as TN and Kerala have made some degree of achievements by
following best practices of many developed countries but there are few
other States such as Odisha and Bihar which are far behind the global
standards and remain backward with very slow progress.
(manasbbsr15@gmail.com)