India to Focus on Health for Nine Percent Growth: Health Minister

Minister of State for Health Dinesh Trivedi Friday said that health and education should remain the focus if India wants to achieve its desired growth rate. "The finance minister is confident of achieving nine percent growth, but to attain that figure, health and education are the two priorities," he said, addressing a function at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).

Stressing the need to provide health facilities to rural areas, Trivedi said that 80 percent of the expenditure on health was from private sector and it was entirely being spent in urban areas.

"80 percent of the expenditure is on 15 percent population," he said and urged the private sector to come forward and invest in rural areas.

Pitching for inclusion of drinking water under the ambit of health ministry, Trivedi said that basic facilities like clean drinking water and nutrition were the basic factors for ensuring equality.

"If we want to give equal rights to all, providing good health is the first step. The civil society should back us in getting drinking water under health ministry. Water-borne diseases are the basic health hazard in rural areas," he said.

The minister also supported the new scheme for a short term course in medicine for training doctors for rural areas.

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"These doctors will be better than the quacks the rural population goes to at present," he said.

Source-IANS