Health Sector in India – Holistic Study Part 2

Schemes to Improve CSR

Beti Bachao Beti Padao (Save the Girl Child, Educate the Girl Child)

• Reduce female infanticide and sex-selective abortion
• Generate mass awareness in targeted areas to overcome patriarchal and cultural aversion to girl child
• Incentivize birth of girl child by passing on social benefits in form of education and financial support – Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana
• Reduce the gender disparity in access to education and achieve gender parity in literacy levels

Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana

The main objective is to incentivize the birth of a girl child by enabling a savings account scheme in the name of the girl child which can be used in the future for her own education or marriage

Features

• Can be opened anytime after the birth of the girl till she is 10
• A minimum deposit of 1000 Rs
• Maximum – 1.5 lakh per year
• The account remains operative for 21 years or till the marriage of girl after she is 18
• Partial withdrawal of balance at 18 years for higher education
• Can avail tax benefit under SSY

Regulatory institutions in Health Sector

Dealing with Quality – MCI

Functions of MCI

• Accreditation of medical courses and universities
• Registration of practitioners, nurses
• Recognizing medical qualification

Issues

• Parliamentary committee report pointed out rampant nepotism and corruption in MCI which has affected management and administration of all institutions under the MCI
• Conflict in a jurisdiction with MHRD and MHFW –National Council for Human Resource in Health– Umbrella organization of dentists, nurses, pharmaceuticals (NCI, DCI, PCI)
• Standardisation of tests has caused strife to several students owing to lack of uniformity in syllabus and difficulty in language
• Although tests are standardised, MCI fails to ensure uniform quality education for all those who qualify

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NITI Aayog Recommendations

• Replace MCI with National Medical Commission to streamline regulation and avoid nexus between bureaucrats, politicians and corporate
• Exit eligibility test for doctors
• NEET – Common entrance test all over country to award seats to meritorious students to reduce commercialisation of medical education

National Medical Commission Bill,2017

• The bill introduced in Lok Sabha seeks to replace MCI with National Medical Commission as per the recommendations of NITI Aayog
• NMC would have a government nominated chairman and members, board members will be selected by search committee under cabinet secretary
• Medical Pluralism: It calls for a joint sitting between Central Council of Indian Medicine, Central Council of Homeopathy and National Medical Commission once a year to enhance interface between Indian systems of medicine, homeopathy and modern medicine
• Bridge Courses: The joint sitting may approve educational modules or programmes for developing bridges between various medical streams allowing Ayurveda and Homeopathy doctors to practice allopathy after passing of the same
• Autonomous Regulation: Provides for constitution of 4 autonomous boards that deal with graduate and post graduate medical education, assessment and rating of medical institutions and registration of practitioners under NMC
• Licentiate Exam: The Bill proposes an exit (licentiate) exam that is mandatory for all medical graduates to get practicing licenses and for post-graduation
• Only 40% of seats in private colleges are under government regulated fees