New Delhi, July 8 (IANS) India spends a mere Rs.37 per head every month to provide healthcare facilities for its one billion plus citizens, a reply tabled in the Lok Sabha has revealed.
“The per capita expenditure for the years 2006-07 to 2008-09 is in the range of Rs.300 to Rs. 450,” Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said in a written reply. At the top end of the scale, this works out to Rs.37 a day.

Azad said the Commission of Microeconomics and Health set up by the World Health Organisation (WHO) had estimated that the minimum expenditure for essential health interventions for one person should be at least $34 (Rs.1,600) per year.

Though India’s health budget for fiscal 2009-10 has increased by Rs.3,107 crore from Rs.19,534 crore to Rs.22,641 crore, the allocation constitutes a little over one percent of the GDP.

Public health experts believe that government must provide around three percent of the GDP for health related expenditure.