26/05/2020 - Health

KEY POINTS

·         The newest innovation for optimising spaces and communities for growth, the Smart Cities Mission, hasn’t understood the foundational importance of health.

·         Only 1.18 per cent of the 5,861 projects okayed since 2015 are for augmenting infrastructure and capability in health.

·         This is even lower than the shamefully inadequate 1.6 per cent of GDP which the states and the Centre together set aside for health in 2019-20.

·         Of the 30 municipal jurisdictions which account for 79 per cent of cases, 17 are smart cities — and, of them, only seven have invested Mission funds directly in health. Hotspots like Jaipur and Surat have no health projects at all under the Mission.

·         As the Mission clarifies on its website, a smart city has no absolute definition. The term originated among Western planners to describe a city which uses Internet of Things data to optimise its services.

·         The Indian ministry of housing and urban affairs mentions this aspect in only one of the eight features it lists for a smart city. The rest focus on urban planning strategies for quality of life, such as reducing pollution and improving land use.

·         Health is mentioned only in one point, which discusses urban identity conferred through local economic activities like making sports goods and hosiery, and providing medical facilities.

·         Health is an integral component of the governance and it should not be neglected. Government of Indian can order SPV created for the implementation of Smart cities to focus on health aspect.

·         The strategy of Smart Health is based on the providing cheaper doctor consultation, reasonably priced medicines and affordable diagnostics. This can be done by converging different schemes.

·         Consultation through IT Platforms: For instituting round-the-clock doctor consultations,a unique version of telemedicine can be designedby establishing an IT platform to matchpatients and doctors, bringing convenience to patient doorstep.

·         Delivering affordable quality medicines: Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Yojana (PMJAY)scheme of Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers can be used to provideaffordable, quality generic medicines.

·         Delivering affordable Diagnostics: Complementing the free medicine scheme, free diagnostic services can also bemade available under a hub-and-spoke model, floated by the Ministry of Healthunder the Free Diagnostics Service Initiative (FDSI).

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Smart Cities Mission(SCM) - "a creative approach towards urban planning" promote cities to provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens.

COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted that historically in India, "health - the foundation of a mature society and an engine of growth" remained neglected even by the reforms process such as SCM. 

>>> Why the implementation of Smart cities mission neglected the dimension of health aspect ?

- Providing "Good health" facilities is one of the core objective under SCM,  but the irony is - since its inception (in 2015), only 1.03 per cent of the volume invested in health by the Mission.

- Less percentage of GDP allocation for health sector, (which is only 1.6 % of combined GDP of centre and state) is one of reason for 

aforementioned.

-  Lack of convergence of resources from the Centre, states and the local health governing bodies.

- The programme generally lacks critical inclusion aspects. More opportunities for livelihood do not automatically translate into inclusion.

- Lack of use of the participatory approach in capturing a local community’s health needs and local solution.

- The foreign and private sectors will only target investments that have higher returns and many of the public services like 'health' may not fall under this realm.

>>> What needs to be done in this direction ?

- The design and development of a sustainable, economically viable framework will help achieve the objectives of this mission in an inclusive and participatory approach.

- Foreign  and private sector investments are important requirements. However, the cities need to be given the power to decide on the specific aspects to invest upon.

- Coordination between different health  institutions under the SCM needs to be ensured.

>>> Conclusion :

Smart cities are vital for a sustainable future and this mission is a step in the right direction. However, there are numerous limitations in the current juncture and they need to be addressed for it to be of successful.

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