Sustainable economic development in India requires more than just a healthy economy: It also requires a healthy workforce, nurtured by a society that invests adequately in broad-scale public-health initiatives. Although capital investment is often recognized as a priority for government agencies and the corporate sector, investment in human capital—and in keeping society, as a whole, safe from large-scale health threats—should be no less of a priority for nations seeking to make the most of their productive resources.
In the 20th century, we recognized that health and economic development are inextricably intertwined. As the 21st century progresses, we need to ensure that the health of India’s people and the economic advancement of our nation march in tandem, while adapting to the new dynamics that globalization brings to both health and development. And if a society affirms that health is an inalienable human right, its focus on investing in health becomes all the urgent.
Ill health imposes vast economic and social costs—not just on individuals and families, but on society as a whole. Health should therefore be measured not just by the absence of illness: It should also be seen as a critical factor in optimizing a company’s business performance and a nation’s economic productivity.
The improvement of a nation’s health services—judged by fewer worker illnesses, lower absenteeism rates, better nutrition and improved learning among schoolchildren—also pays measurable economic dividends. If India can achieve socially-equitable and financially-responsible ways to ensure improvements in public health, it will improve its chances of achieving sustainable economic growth within a cohesive society. Improving the overall level of society’s health should therefore be a priority, not only for stakeholders in healthcare-related industries, but also for government, business, non-profit organizations and all of civil society.
The 10th Five-Year Plan has highlighted India’s critical health and demographic challenges. Government plans and policies recognize the threats posed by India’s double burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Even as we are still grappling with the basic challenges of poor nutrition and hazardous childbirth—and the continuing high prevalence of preventable infectious diseases as diarrhoea, pneumonia, cholera, malaria and tuberculosis—we must confront the growing incidence of chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. And India has the largest population of people living with HIV/AIDS of any country in the world.
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