FM Jaitley's Rs 10,290-cr Budget boost for health hides cuts in key areas

Most of the Rs 10,290-crore increase will be spent on issues regarded as low priority

Despite a Rs 10,290-crore increase in health funding for 2017-18, an investigation of the central government’s health budget reveals that most of this money is not being spent on India’s health priorities, which, instead, now face funding cuts.

Elimination of tropical diseases (kala azar, filariasis and leprosy) over the next two years; elimination of a vaccine-preventable disease (measles) by 2020. Elimination of tuberculosis (TB) by 2025; and “significant reduction” of infant and maternal mortality by 2020: These were some key proclamations related to health made by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during his February 1, 2017,