Urban-rural divide in health care needs urgent attention, VP

Vice-President M VenkaiahNaidu today said there could not be "two Indias" as he highlighted the "acute shortage" of doctors as also health care facilities in the rural areas when compared to cities.

"...as you all are aware; there is an acute shortageof doctors as also health care facilities in the rural areas.India has less than one doctor for every 1,000 population,"he said.

Naidu said the rural areas were much less covered ascompared to urban areas.

"There is an urban-rural divide that needs urgent attention and action,"the Vice-President said in his convocationaddress at the 20th Annual Convocation of the Rajiv GandhiUniversity of Health Science here.

He said, "We cannot have two Indias, with the cities having the state-of-the-art facilities and the rural areas lagging behind. There has to be a collaborative public-private partnership to remedy the situation."