India is boasting of its 8% plus GDP growth, and of its resilient economy at the time of global financial crisis. Its pharmaceutical industries are showing their global presence and their colossal rise with uninterrupted pace is being appreciated. India is becoming the preferred destination for the pharmaceutical generation, with low charges of research and development and for the production costs as well. Government of India is increasingly emphasising on the global standards for the R & D of the drugs and is looking very concerned regarding the healthcare conditions in india. It is also increasing its expenditure on healthcare industries and set up of hospitals and dispensaries in remote areas. However this booming pharmaceutical industries and ever-increasing government expenditure is not directly proportional to the improved healthcare conditions in the country.
Our every vaccination program has been proved to be a fiasco. Every campaign for the eradication of Polio or malaria for last 6 decades has been proved inefficient. We bow down to every communicable diseases may be it plague, avian flu, swine flu or HIV/AIDS. Government and the intelligentsia of the country always try to cut the corners by giving very perfuntory solutions to handle the problem. They keep on emphasizing the International standards of healthcare system without taking any learning from past experiences. The idea of ‘international standardisation’ is not bad. But it is more influenced by the pharma- corporate world. They affect the decision makers of the country in two important ways. Firstly, they keep on asking the government about the vaccination program and its efficacy, irrespective of the affordability to the common people, because they get greater profit from it than from any other dosage form. Vaccination is indubitably the most effective way, but it is actually western approach. It is not at all affordable for the mid or lower income countries like ours. Secondaly, they never let the policy makers think of the most important health aspect which is “Sanitation and clean water”. Western world has successfully eradicated polio and malaria because it has world’s best sanitary conditions and clean water even for the poorest people. Every healthcare expenditure or healthcare campaign is bound to fail unless living conditions for the mass are not improved.
According to the WHO, 130 crore people in the world defecate in open, out of which 65 crore are in india. More than half of the population of India do not have access to clean water. More than 50 million people lives in slums under abject insalubrious conditions. Our rivers are most polluted in the world. Under these conditions no country can expect to have a successful healthcare system. Every communicable disease will keep on attacking us in its most lethal ways unless this basic need of improved salubrious condition is not being fulfilled. Vaccinations and every other campaign is effective only if people are living in clean cities and villages.
Another important thing is that inspite of blindly boasting the international standards, we must look at our regional priorities and population. Most of the successful drugs were made by looking at the regional priorities of the western population and not ours. Every developed country including britain, US and japan have their own standards of drug preparation and delivery, and they are least bothered to international standards and world trends. Even neighbouring China has its own methods of drug delivery and healthcare system and is least bothered to WHO and USFDA. And result is before everybody, China has successfully provided primary health to its 80% of population in just 2 decades. But we are stubbornly obsessed with the western way of healthcare system. Our policy makers think alike to pharmaceutical industries which never let them think out of the traditional in-comprehensive approach.
So inspite of spending blindly on giving our healthcare system a western look, its time to take a pause and let us learn whether this approach has sufficiently served us. Let us think out of the box now. Let us be more judicious and more concerned towards our own people rather than propitiating the WHO and USFDA along with pharmaceutical companies. Let us first go to the basics. Improve our living conditions by improving sanitation and providing clean water. Along with it lets spend on the research and development with a special focus on regional population and then move towards the international standards. In that scenario even if we don’t move to international standards, we would have a better healthy population. Because international standards are nothing but local standards of western population. Let our own population enjoy those own local standards and raise those local standards to be counted as internation standards.
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