INDIA'S HEALTH STATUS AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT- ACHIEVEMENTS AND CHALLENGES.

Health is crucial for sustainable human development, both as an inalienable human right and as an essential contributor to the economic growth of society. Heath is also a good summative measure of the progress of nations in achieving sustainable development. It contributes to national development through productive employment, reduced expenditure on illness care and greater social cohesion. By promoting good health at all ages, the benefits of development extend across generations (UN, 2016). At the dawn of Independence India was facing a stiff challenge of improving the health outcomes because it was having huge maternal mortality ratio (MMR) , infant mortality rate(IMR) ,under-5 mortality rate(U5MR), crude death rate(CDR) and very low life expectancy at birth (LEB). Ever since then significant progress has been made on these fronts, especially in the last 25 years.The maternal mortality ratio (MMR), IMR, U5MMR and CDR have been reduced from 560 ,88.3,126 and 10.85 in 1990 to 181,39.3,49.8 and 7.33 respectively in 2015. However, in comparison to other developing and developed countries of the world, India lies at the bottom as far as health outcomes are concerned. It is because of poverty, low public expenditure on determinants of health outcomes and also the loopholes in the existing health system. Therefore, if India has to achieve sustainable development goals by 2030, health has to be at the centre stage of policy formation.