‘India is experiencing a health transition’

Chief of Public Health Foundation of India addresses 23rd K.S. Vyas memorial lecture

HYDERABAD, Telangana, 11/02/2019: (from L to R) K.Aruna Vyas wife of K S Vyas, Telangana State DGP M. Mahender Reddy, K. Srinath Reddy, President of Public Health Foundation of India, Santosh Mehra, Director,Telangana State Police Academy(TSPA), at the 23rd K.S.Vyas memorial lecture in Hyderabad on Monday. K. S. Vyas was shot dead by naxalites while he was jogging inside the L B Stadium on January 27, 1993. Photo: G. Ramakrishna / The Hindu

The country is experiencing a health transition with non-communicable diseases becoming dominant, even as infectious, nutritional and pregnancy-related conditions still pose public health threats, said K. Srinath Reddy, president of Public Health Foundation of India.

He was delivering the 23rd memorial lecture of IPS officer K.S. Vyas at Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS) auditorium on ‘India’s road to universal health coverage’.

“The country’s present health indicators lag behind those of our own neighbours and peers, indicating that health has not kept pace with development,” he said. The health system faces several challenges due to the shortage of both financial and human resources, with barriers to access and affordability evident in health equity gaps in the country.

Further, he said the Union government’s national health protection scheme, Ayushman Bharat Yojana, has initiated the two-pronged mission to advance universal health coverage. The programme needs to overcome design and resource constraints to succeed. “Action beyond the health sector, influencing the social and environmental determinants of health, are also needed to protect and promote population health,” he said.

The average life expectancy in India has increased from 32 years during Independence to 68.2 years in 2016 and maternal mortality ratio has dropped to 130 between 2015 and 2016, Prod. Reddy said.

Retired IPS officer and former Hyderabad Police Commissioner M.V. Krishna Rao said the late Vyas was instrumental in the formation of Greyhounds and SIB, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam urban districts, which later on became police commissionerates.

Another retired IPS officer from Meghalaya cadre, K.C. Reddy said Mr. Vyas was an affectionate friend who believed in proactive policing and bringing attitudinal change in all stakeholders. “Protection to those right and acting tough with wrongdoers was his motto. The present generations should imbibe the qualities of bravery and compassion from him,” he added.