International Journal of Commerce and Economics

authors
Vikas Kumar, Ashok Kumar

abstract
India’s health system faces the ongoing challenge of responding to the needs of the most disadvantaged members of Indian society. Growing socio-economic inequalities in India due to the absence of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and an important determinant of socioeconomic inequities is caste. For the five-year period before the 2019-21 NFHS (National Family Health Survey), The under-five mortality rate was 42 deaths per 1,000 live births. This indicates that one in 24 children in India die before their fifth birthday. More than four fifths (83%) of these deaths occur during infancy. As on 31st March, 2021, there are 156101 and 1718 Sub Centres (SCs), 25140 and 5439 Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and 5481 and 470 Community Health Centres (CHCs) respectively which are functioning in rural and urban areas of the country. In this paper, we identify the factors that are affecting the equity in access to Health services and four key areas that require the urgent attention.