INFRASTRUCTURE

What is Infrastructure ? 

Infrastructure provides supporting services in the main areas of industrial and agricultural production, domestic and foreign trade and commerce. These services include roads, railways, ports, airports, dams, power stations, oil and gas pipelines, telecommunication facilities, the country's educational system, health system, sanitary system and the monetary system.

Some of these facilities have a direct impact on production of goods and services while others give indirect support by building the social sector of the economy. Some divide infrastructure into two categories. They are:

1. Economic Infrastructure:

i) It helps the economic system from inside i.e., directly.

ii) It improves the quality of economic resources.

iii) Infrastructure is associated with Energy, Transport and communication.

2. Social Infrastructure:

i) It helps the economic system from outside i.e., indirectly.

ii) It improves the quality of human resources.

iii) Infrastructure is associated with Education, Health and Housing

Relevance of Infrastructure 

1. Infrastructure is the support system which depends on the efficient working of a modern industrial economy.

2. Infrastructure impacts productivity: Modern agriculture also largely depends on it for speedy and large scale transport of seeds, pesticides, fertilizers and the produce using modern roadways, railways and shipping facilities. In recent times, agriculture also depends on insurance and banking facilities because of its need to operate on a very large scale.

3. Infrastructure contributes to economic development of a country both by increasing the productivity of the factors of production and improving the quality of life of its people.

4. Inadequate infrastructure can have multiple adverse effects on health.

5. Improvements in water supply and sanitation have a large impact by reducing morbidity.

State of Infrastructure in India 

1. India invests approximately 5 percent of its GDP on infrastructure, which is far below that of China and Indonesia.

2. With the government, the private sector in partnership with the public sector is also playing a very important role in infrastructure development.

3. India needs to develop its infrastructure especially in the area of rural energy requirement, water, basic amenities and sanitation. Because according to the census 2001 shows that:

i). In rural India only 56 percent households have an electricity connection and 43 percent still use kerosene.

ii). About 90 percent of the rural households use bio-fuels for cooking.

iii). Tap water availability is limited to only 24 percent rural households.

iv). About 76 percent of the population drinks water from open sources such as wells, tanks, ponds, lakes, rivers, canals, etc.

v). Access to improved sanitation in rural areas was only 20 percent.

4.  Agriculture depends, to a considerable extent, on the adequate expansion and development of irrigation facilities. Industrial progress depends on the development of power and electricity generation, transport and communications.

5. Obviously, if proper attention is not paid to the development of infrastructure, it is likely to act as a severe constraint on economic development. Therefore, Development of infrastructure and economic development go hand in hand.

Energy 

1. Energy is the most important component of economic infrastructure. Industrial production is not possible if energy is not available. Energy is broadly classified as commercial and non-commercial energy.

i). Components of Commercial Energy are Coal, petroleum products, natural gas, and electricity. 

ii). Components of Non-Commercial Energy are Firewood, animal waste, and agricultural waste. These are non-commercial as they are found in nature/forests.

2. While commercial sources of energy are generally exhaustible, non-commercial sources are generally renewable. More than 60 percent of Indian Households depend on traditional sources of energy for meeting their regular cooking and heating needs.

3. Consumption Pattern of Commercial Energy:

i). Commercial Energy :  Commercial energy consumption makes up about 65 percent of the total energy consumed in India. This includes coal with the largest share of 55 percent , followed by oil at 31 percent, natural gas at 11 percent and hydro energy at 3 percent.

ii) Non-Commercial Energy: Sources consisting of firewood, agricultural waste and cow dung account for over 30 percent of the total energy consumption.

4. Conventional Sources: It includes both commercial and non commercial sources of energy like Coal, Natural gas, petroleum etc.

5. Non-Conventional Sources: Are renewable resources of energy like biomass, solar energy, wind energy, tidal energy, etc.

Power/ Electricity 

a). The most visible form of energy, which is often identified with progress in modern civilization, is power, commonly called electricity.

b). The growth rate of demand for power is generally higher than the GDP growth rate. Studies point that in order to have 8 percent GDP growth per annum, power supply needs to grow around 12 per cent annually.

c). Electricity is a secondary form of energy produced from primary energy resources including coal, hydrocarbons, hydro energy, nuclear energy, renewable energy etc. Primary energy consumption takes into account the direct and indirect consumption of fuels.

d). In India, in 2010-11, thermal sources accounted for almost 65 percent of the power generation capacity. Hydro, wind and nuclear sources accounted for 32.5 and 2.5 percent respectively. At present, nuclear energy accounts for only 2.5 percent of total primary energy consumption, against a global average of 13 per cent. This is far too low.

e). India’s energy policy encourages two energy sources: Hydel and Wind -as they do not rely on fossil fuel and, hence, avoid carbon emissions.

f). Challenges: Some of the challenges that India’s power sector faces today are:

-> Insufficient installed capacity and Under Utilization of capacity.

-> Losses incurred by SEBs.

-> Uncertain role of private sector and Public unrest.

-> Shortage of raw materials.

-> Operational Inefficiency- Transmission and distribution losses.

Health 

1. Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being. It does not simply mean absence of disease, rather it means a sound physical and mental state of the individual.

2. A person’s ability to work depends largely on his health. Good health enhances the quality of life. Health is not only the absence of disease but also the ability to realize one’s potential. It is a yardstick of one’s well being.

3. Health is the holistic process related to the overall growth and development of the nation. Generally scholars assess people’s health by taking into account indicators like infant mortality and maternal mortality rates, life expectancy and nutrition levels, along with the incidence of communicable and non- communicable diseases.

4. Development of health infrastructure ensures a country of healthy manpower for production of goods and services.

5. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure the right to healthy living. Health infrastructure includes hospitals, doctors, nurses and other paramedical professionals, beds, equipment required in hospitals and a well-developed pharmaceutical industry. Only the presence of health infrastructure is not sufficient to have healthy people but it should be accessible to all the people.

6. Since the initial stages of planned development, policy-makers envisaged that no individual should fail to secure medical care, curative and preventive, because of the inability to pay for it.

State of Health Infrastructure 

1. The government has the constitutional obligation to guide and regulate all health related issues such as medical education, adulteration of food, drugs and poisons, medical profession, vital statistics, mental deficiency and lunacy.

2. Over the years, India has built up a vast health infrastructure and manpower at different levels.

3. India’s health infrastructure and health care is made up of a three-tier system: primary, secondary and tertiary.

4. At the village level, a variety of hospitals known as Primary Health Centres (PHCs) have been set.

5. There are a large number of hospitals run by voluntary agencies and the private sector, equipped with professionals and para medical professionals trained in medical, pharmacy and nursing colleges.

6. Since independence, there has been a significant expansion in the physical provision of health services. Public Health Infrastructure in India, 1951-2000

Private Sector Health Infrastructure 

1. In recent time, private health infrastructure has grown largely.

2. About 70% of the hospitals running in India belong to the private sector. Nearly 60% of dispensaries are run by the same private sector.

3. Private sector has also been contributing significantly in medical education and training, medical technologies and diagnostics, manufacture and sale of pharmaceuticals, hospital construction and medical services.

4. In 2001-02, there were more than 13 lakhs medical enterprises employing 22 lakhs people, more than 80 percent of them are single person owned, and operated by one person occasionally employing a hired worker.

5. Scholars point out that the private sector in India has grown independently without any major regulation some private practitioners are not even registered doctors and are known as Quacks.

Indian System of Medicine 

1. It includes six systems- Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, Naturopathy and Homeopathy (AYUSH).

2. At present there are 3,004 ISM hospitals, 23,028 dispensaries and as many as 6, 11, 431 registered practitioners in India. But little has been done to set up a framework to standardize education or to promote research.

3. ISM has huge potential and can solve a large part of our health care problems because they are effective, safe and inexpensive.

Medical Tourism – A Great Opportunity 

1. Now-a-days foreigners visit India for surgeries, liver transplants, dental and even cosmetic care etc, the reason is, our health services combine latest medical technologies with qualified professionals and is cheaper for foreigners as compared to costs of similar health care services in their own countries.

2. In 2004-05, as many as 150000 foreigners visited India for medical treatment, this figure is likely to increase by 15% each year. Health infrastructure can be upgraded to attract more foreigners to India.

Health System in India 

India’s health infrastructure and healthcare is made up of a three tier system

1. Primary Healthcare: Primary healthcare system in India includes:

a). Education concerning prevailing health problems and methods of identifying, preventing and controlling them.

b). Promotion of food supply and proper nutrition and adequate supply of water and basic sanitation.

c). Maternal and child health care.

d). Immunization against major infectious diseases and injuries.

e). Promotion of health and provision of essential drugs.

 Auxiliary Nursing Midwife (ANM) is the first person who provides primary health care in rural areas. They are known as Primary Health Centres (PHCs), Community Health Centres (CHCs) and sub centres. 

2. Secondary Healthcare: When the condition of a patient is not managed by PHCs, they are referred to secondary or tertiary hospitals. Health care institutes having better facilities for surgery, X-ray, ECG (Electro Cardio Graph) are called secondary healthcare institutes. They function both as primary health care providers and also provide better health care facilities. They are mostly located in districts and headquarters in big towns.

3. Tertiary Healthcare:  In the tertiary sector, there are the hospitals which have advanced level equipment and medicines and undertake all the complicated health problems, which could not be managed by primary and secondary hospitals.

This sector also includes many premier institutes which not only impart quality medical education and conduct research but also provide specialized health care. For example, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMSs), Post Graduate Institute (PGI), Chandigarh, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Pondicherry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHNSs), Bangalore and All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Kolkata. 

Indicators of Health and Health Infrastructure : Critical Appraisal 

1. Health status of the country can be assessed through indicators such as infant mortality and maternal mortality rates, life expectancy and nutrition levels, along with the incidence of communicable diseases. Scholars argue that there is greater scope for the role of government in the health sector.

2. India’s expenditure on the health sector is only 4.2% of total GDP. This is very low as compared to other countries, both developing and developed.

3. India has about 17% of the world’s population but it bears a frightening 20% of the global burden of diseases.

4. Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) is an indicator used by experts to gauge the number of people dying prematurely due to a particular disease as well as the number of years spent by them in a state of disability’ Owing to the disease.

5. Every year around five lakh children die due to water borne diseases. The danger of AIDS is also looming large.

6. Malnutrition and inadequate supply of vaccines lead to the death of 2.2 million children every year.

7. At present, less than 20% of the population utilizes public health facilities. 

8. Only 38% of PHC’s, have quired number of doctors and only 30% of PHC’s have sutTK stock of medicines.

 

Urban-Rural and Poor-Rich Divide 

1.Though one-fifth of the rural population lives in rural areas, only one-fifth of total hospitals are located in rural areas. People in rural areas do not have sufficient medical infrastructure. This leads to differences in the health status of people.

2. There are only 0.36% hospitals for every one lakh people in rural areas while urban areas have 3.6% hospitals for the same number of people.

3. The PHCs located in rural areas do not offer even X-ray or blood testing facilities which, for a city dweller, constitutes basic healthcare. There is a shortage of doctors in rural areas. One-fih of these doctors migrate from one country to -another for better job opportunities.

4. The poorest 20% of Indians living in both urban and rural areas spend 12% of their income on healthcare while the rich spend only 2%.

5. Percentage of people who have no access to proper care has risen from 15 in 1986 to 24 in 2003.

Women’s Health 

1. Women constitute about half the total population in India. They suffer many disadvantages as compared to men in the areas of education, participation in economic activities and health care. The child sex ratio has been detonated from 927 in 2001 to 914 in 2011.

2. There is a growing incidence of female foeticide in the country. Close to 3 lakh girls under the age of 15 are not only married but have already borne children, at least once.

3. More than 50% of married women between the age group of 15 and 49 years suffer from anaemia caused by iron deficiency. It has contributed to 19% of maternal deaths. Abortions are major cause of maternal morbidity and mortality in India.

Health: A Vital Public Good and a Basic Human Right All citizens can get better health facilities if public health services are decentralized. Success against diseases depends on education and efficient health infrastructure. So it is necessary to create awareness on health and provide an efficient system. The role of telecom and IT in this regard is very important. The ultimate goal should be to help people move towards a better quality of life.

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