75^th Session of the United Nations General Assembly

Agenda item 131: Global Health and Foreign Policy

INDIA STATEMENT

by 

Mr. Pratik Mathur, Counsellor

Mr. President

A healthy life is every person’s basic right and the onus for this rests on our respective governments to make every possible effort to ensure full protection and enjoyment of this right by everyone.

We thank Indonesia for putting forward the resolution this year on behalf of the seven member countries, on strengthening health system resilience through affordable healthcare for all.

We appreciate the contribution of the Foreign Policy and Global Health Initiative in mobilizing political support for major public health issues and thereby ensuring that they are placed high on the international agenda.

We also welcome the resolutions on International Day of Epidemic Preparedness and United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing 2021-2030 tabled under this agenda item. 

Mr. President

Health does not simply mean freedom from diseases rather an all-inclusive wellness. India has taken a holistic approach towards this subject based on the four main pillars of healthcare. 

The first pillar is Preventive Healthcare. We have laid special emphasis on Yoga, Ayurveda and Fitness aimed at controlling lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, blood pressure, hypertension and depression. In many countries, societies have reverted to healthy dietary practices which respects food diversity, inclusion of traditional and immune boosting local foods, and food grown sans chemicals and pesticides. 

The second pillar is Affordable Healthcare. India has launched the National Health Protection Scheme in September 2018. The scheme is based on the twin pillars – expanding access to primary healthcare service through Health and Wellness Centers and providing insurance coverage for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to poor and vulnerable families.

The Health and Wellness Centers deliver comprehensive primary health care bringing healthcare closer to the communities. More than 150,000 such Health & Wellness Centers are operational. 

As on 4^th Dec 2020, 24,608 hospitals have been empaneled in the programme. More than half of these are in private sector. A total of 126 million health cards have been issued and 14 million people have availed treatments under the scheme.

The other arm of the National Health Protection Scheme is providing health insurance cover for up to US$7,000 per family, per year, for secondary and tertiary hospitalization. This insurance is provided to about 100 million households or about 500 million people who are poor and most vulnerable.

The insurance scheme provides cashless and paperless access to health services for every beneficiary at designated hospitals across the country.

We have opened more than 6,700 special pharmacies, where vital medicines are available at affordable prices. The cost of Stents for heart patients has been slashed by 80% and the cost of Knee Implants has been cut down by 50 to 70%. Hundreds of thousands of kidney patients in India, are also availing the free dialysis services provided by the government.

The third pillar is improvements on the supply side. We have taken several major steps for quality medical education, and for medical infrastructure development. To improve access to tertiary care, expansion of medical education and increase the number of medical professions, we have planned to open 157 new medical colleges. 

And the fourth pillar is mission mode intervention. We have started National Nutrition Policy to improve the nutritional status of the people, especially disadvantaged groups, including mothers, adolescent girls and children. 

In the Sustainable Development goals, 2030 has been set as the target year for ending Tuberculosis. We plan to achieve this target by 2025, five years ahead of the deadline. To reach this ambitious goal, India has started implementing the National Strategic Plan and has substantially increased fund allocation for TB control. 

Mr. President

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted systemic weaknesses in health systems and vulnerabilities in the capacity to prevent and respond to pandemic threats. We need to address the major weaknesses and gaps to strengthen global coordination to ensure that the world is better prepared to curb the impacts of future health-related crisis. 

We need to capitalize on existing programs such as the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACTA), and COVAX facility to ensure affordable and equitable global access to diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines, while strengthening health systems. Also, we need to come up with long term strategies and roadmaps to put in place a system to deal with the future pandemics.

Equitable access to affordable medicines, diagnostic tools and technologies remains a concern. We must address all barriers against access to medicines and new technologies, including through use of flexibilities provided in WTO TRIPS Agreement and the Doha Declaration.  

Community health workers play a crucial role in covering the last mile in delivery of services. We need to strengthen their capacity.

Mr. President

India has taken proactive measures from the early stage of the virus spread which ensured that we stayed ahead of the curve. India has extended medical and other assistance to more than 150 countries to fight against the COVID-19. The India-UN Development Partnership Fund, managed by UNOSSC, is working rapidly to support projects responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The moto of the Government of India, ‘Together, for everyone’s growth, with everyone’s trust’ resonates with the core SDG principle of leaving no one behind. We are committed to partner with Member States and other stakeholders to synergize our efforts to accelerate progress towards achieving sustainable development goals and universal health coverage with the most productive, efficient and effective utilization of resources.

I thank you, Mr. President