Articles

Burden of Income Tax and Health Care Inequalities in India- An Empirical Analysis

Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate the burden of income tax and health care inequalities in India.

Materials and Method: The data retrieved from various electronic databases such as Google Scholar, PubMed, Science Direct, Cochrane library and other sources regarding individual income tax, allocation of GDP for health sector and the out-of-pocket expenditure of the public for the health sector among top ten GDP countries. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis.

Results: Though India ranks the fifth place in GDP, it spends only 1.4% of GDP on the health sector, which was very low when compared to top GDP countries, so the public spends more out of pocket for the health sector (67.78%), which forcibly pushes them into poverty.

Conclusion: The Government should make more effort and should allot more amount of GDP for the health sector in future for the beneficiaries of people.

Millennium Development Goals and Status of Health Services in Morigaon District of Assam

The proposal of the Millennium Declaration in 2000 by all United Nations Member States marked an historic moment, as world leaders committed to tackle extreme poverty in its many dimensions and create a better life for everyone. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) translate this commitment into a framework of measurable goals and targets by which progress can be measured. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that all 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. The goals are eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women reducing child mortality rates, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability, and developing a global partnership for development.  Among these eight goals three goals are directly related to human health.

As a first step in Assam’s Model District, Morigaon, the project has created a multi-sectoral team of health, nutrition, water, and education officials to focus activities on maternal and child health. The project also focused on improved training for Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), the critical community based health workers that mobilize women and children for health services within the villages. The project will also focus on training nurses in better antenatal care delivery, which is vital for lowering the risk of maternal death, and will introduce mobile phone technologies so that data can be collected—and mothers and babies tracked-throughout rural areas that are difficult to access.