Poor Health Performance Ranks India Below its Neighbours

Bangalore: India’s health performance has been reported to be at its worst when compared with the neighbouring countries. When the life expectancy, mortality due to all causes, under-five mortality or mortality among men and women between 15 and 49 years of age, or many indices when compared, India ranked way below China, Sri Lanka and Brazil. It was ranked just below Bangladesh and Nepal. In few cases it even ranked below Pakistan, as reported by Rema Nagarajan for TNN.  

The details are revealed in the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors 2010 Study (GDB 2010). The study is a collaborative project led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at Washington University. The study captured the causes of death and disability, across gender and different age groups in 187 countries.

Among India's neighbouring countries Sri Lanka and China fought for top spot on most parameters. Lalit Dandona, research professor, Public Health Foundation of India and professor of global health at IHME said, “Countries like China and Brazil and even our neighbours, who are not as well off, doing well show that India should be able to do a lot better. We are in this situation probably because we only pay lip service to health service and health system development. Our public expenditure on health is among the lowest in the world,” as reported by TNN.

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