Basics need still more

Education and health are two vast bottomless pits ready to absorb any quantum of funding. Measured against high demands that simply can’t be met, the allocation for these two vital areas affecting the life and health of millions is never sufficient. Most of the additional sums earmarked — Rs 2,802 crores for schools and Rs 4,489 crores for higher education — will first go into expansion of infrastructure rather than crucial areas like the overall improvement of basic standards. The goals for education, like formation of a national testing agency to relieve CBSE and AICTE of these tasks, and a system to measure annual learning outcome are laudable. So too are outcome-based education and skill development schemes, that will add value to job seekers.

The addition of 5,000 postgraduate medical seats was vital in a country that produces just 50,000 graduates a year and less than 7,000 MS surgeons. The allocation of just Rs 10,000 crores more for health may be self-defeating. Seen as a percentage of GDP, healthcare in India gets less than some sub-Saharan countries. We are still paying the price for the concerted efforts in previous decades to promote private healthcare at the cost of state-run medical care. The setting of deadlines for eradication of diseases like filariasis, leprosy, measles and TB is praiseworthy.  The challenge is less about setting goals, more about devising a sustained way to attain them, which is where India lags behind.