Bengaluru: Karnataka is far from being a progressive state that it is touted to be. Despite brave talk by successive health ministers in the state, per capita expenditure on health is a measly 0.70 percent of its gross state domestic product (GSDP). Compare that to 4.64% in Mizoram, 4 percent in Arunachal Pradesh, and 2.87 in impoverished Tripura and the picture becomes clearer and bleaker.
To be fair to Karnataka, all major states in India have low per capita expenditure on health. Maharashtra, which never tires of touting its wealth, spends an embarrassing 0.61% of its GSDP. The figure for a rich state like Haryana is 0.64%. Punjab and Tamil Nadu are only slightly better at 0.78% and 0.73%, respectively.
Gujarat, touted to be a model for other states, is ahead by a whisker at 0.80%. Shamefully, the so-called Empowered Action Group (EAG) of states comprising the major, richer states is all below the admittedly abysmal 1.1% percent national per capita expenditure. These are not figures from an NGO, but from a specialised government agency called the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI), which is part of the Union Ministry of Health.
According to the CBHI figures, the highest per capita expenditure on health as a percentage of GSDP is in tiny Mizoram. The little state is a model for other states spending 4.64% of its GSDP on health. And Arunachal Pradesh, recently in news for the India-China standoff over it, should actually have been news for being vastly better than major states in its health spending. Its figure is 4%.
