World Health Day 2019: Five Stark Facts About Healthcare You Need To Know

New Delhi: April 7 that marks the beginning of World Health Organisation (WHO) with its constitution coming into effect is celebrated as the World Health Day. The day aims at drawing everyone’s attention towards global health. In 1948, the WHO organised the first World Health Assembly and concluded to observe April 7 as World Health Day every year with effect from 1950. Since then, each year, the day is marked with a unique theme and varied activities are organised across the globe around the same theme. This year the theme is ‘Universal health coverage: everyone, everywhere’.

Also Read: How Not Having Access To Safe Sanitation And Hygiene Is Killing Millions In India

The theme implies all individuals and communities should get health services without any financial crunch. Universal health coverage ensures that health services provided are of a quality that improves the health of a person seeking those.

As part of the sustainable development goals, all United Nation Member states have agreed to try to achieve universal health coverage by 2030. While the world tries to implement universal health coverage, here are five stark facts about universal health and money spent on it, according to WHO, that you need to know.

Also Read: World Health Day: In Inefficient Management Of Waste Is A Cause of Deadly Diseases

1. Over 800 million people (almost 12 per cent of the world’s population) spend at least 10 per cent of their household budgets on health care.

2. According to National Health Profile 2018, India’s per capita public spending on health is low (1.02 per cent of GDP) as compared to countries that have either Universal Health Coverage or moving towards it. Sri Lanka spends about four times as much as India per capita on health, and Indonesia more than twice.

3. At least half of the world’s population still does not have full coverage of essential health services.

4. India spends 1.02 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) on public health, compared to 1.4 per cent by low-income countries, reveals National Health Profile 2018.

5. About 100 million people are being pushed into extreme poverty (defined as living on Rs. 130.82 or less a day) because of their expenditure on health care.

Also Read: How Clean Water, Sanitation and Awareness About Hygiene Can Save Lives Of Children In India

NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.