Health sector gets a meagre rise in allocation

Amid strains on the country's economy, India's Health sector was allocated Rs 37,330 crore in budget estimates for 2013-14, a meagre hike of 8.24 per cent from budget estimates of 2012-13.
The funds crunch had forced the Finance Ministry to reduce the budget estimates for the health sector for the current financial year by over 15 per cent during the year - down from from the budget estimates of Rs 34,488 crore to revised estimates of Rs 29,272.56 crore.
Presenting the budget for 2013-14 in Parliament today, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said "Health for All" is a priority of the government.

In his budget speech, Chidambaram said, "I propose to allocate Rs 37,330 crore to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Of this, the new National Health Mission that combines the rural mission and the proposed urban mission will get Rs 21,239 crore, an increase of 24.3 percent over the Revised Estimates."
Of the total allocation for the health sector for 2013-14, the Department of Health and Family Welfare got the majority share of Rs 33,278 crore, the Department of AIDS Control Rs 1,785 crore, the Department of AYUSH a total of Rs 1,259 crore and the department of Health Research Rs 1,008 crore.

Next year's budget has a made a provision for the proposed urban health mission and earmarked a major amount for the medical education and research sector.
Six medical colleges in AIIMS-like institutes that started in September 2012 will have hospitals attached to them in 2013-14 for which a provision of Rs 1,650 crore has been made.
However, there has been no allocation for the Reproductive and Child Health Project, Pulse Polio Immunisation and routine immunisation, National TB Control programme and National Disease Control Programme.