Picture of health

Health index needs a rejig

The NITI Aayog’s fourth Health Index report for the year 2019-20, published in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, ranking states on a weighted composite score based on 24 indicators, offers a useful granular picture of the state of Indian health care. Based on three broad domains —health outcomes, governance and information, and key inputs and processes —the index is reasonably comprehensive, covering not just standard health indicators such as child mortality but also factors such as modern contraceptive prevalence, the TB treatment success rate, and the average occupancy of a chief medical officer in districts for