Mumbai may have the wealth that any world class city has, but its public health doesn't match up. Filth, malnutrition, communicable diseases, life-style diseases, sanitation, hygiene and environmental health are all close to the bottom of comparable cities globally. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) health is literally in a squalid state.
Mumbai may have the wealth that any world class city has, but its public health doesn't match up. Filth, malnutrition, communicable diseases, life-style diseases, sanitation, hygiene and environmental health are all close to the bottom of comparable cities globally. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) health is literally in a squalid state.
A look at the BMC's spending on health over the past five decades reveals that public health facilities are under-financed, lack human resources and are in a state of disrepair.
On Wednesday, the civic body will yet again announce a budget worth thousands of crores of rupees, a figure that has inflated staggeringly since 1960s. In the 60s, BMC had a modest budget of Rs 15.84 crore. In 2014-15, the budget estimates have inflated over 2000 times.
The initial allocation for health though has been on a downslide during the subsequent decades till date. In 2000s, total BMC expenditure was earmarked at Rs 3175.14 crore, but just over Rs 467.81 crore (14.73%) was allocated for health. Fourteen years later, even after an inflation of BMC's budget by ten times to Rs 31,172 crore, health expenditure – at Rs 2,907 crore – stands embarrassingly at single digits, 9.3 per cent of the total BMC budget.
BMC lately has become the richest municipal corporation in Asia, with its budget estimates running into over Rs 31,000 crore until last year. Even after such massive inflation of budget, the percentage allocation towards spending in the sector of health has reduced from double digits to single digits over the last 54 years.
It is mandatory for a municipal corporation to allocate one-third of its budget towards spending on health. In 1960s, of the Rs 15.84 crore-worth BMC budget, Rs 5.46 crore was spent on health. "34.45 per cent of the total budget was spent on making health infrastructure robust," observed Ravi Duggal, a researcher with International Budget Partnership.
It is extremely difficult to ameliorate healthcare in BMC if it does not allocate sufficient budget for health care, contend researchers. "In 1960s, Zakaria committee, which was formed to study municipal services in India, submitted a report which recommended that up to thirty percent of BMC budget should be set aside for health. The budget allocation for improving health services in late eighties was close to 30 percent, but through the last twenty years, health sector has suffered neglect as allocation has been on a downside. In 2014-15, only 9.3 per cent, i.e. Rs 2,907 crore of the total BMC budget of Rs 31,172 crore, was earmarked for health. This amount is extremely insufficient and meagre considering the burgeoning population and significant increase in total budget of the BMC," explained Duggal.
"Looking forward to the future of public healthcare in Mumbai, we actually need to look back into its history and revive the public health system we had and we were proud of. We would have to return to an expenditure level of atleast 25 per of the BMC budget and this will help improve the healthcare facilities, bring back the doctors and nurses and also the patients from all classes."
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