Nobel laureate and economist Amartya Sen expressed his thought on how primary education and healthcare haven’t received deserved attention in India. However, he is optimistic that the upcoming Lok Sabha elections will bring some good results.
He said that schemes such as Ayushman Bharat and Rashtriya Swastha Bima Yojana do not help in improving primary healthcare in India.
During a program in West Bengal, he said that by just giving money will not help primary healthcare and the schemes are guided by narrow thinking which only takes credits.
He further said that the money spent for improvement of health and education is not enough in this nation.
"Primary healthcare is being neglected," the Nobel laureate said.
He added that those who can afford it, go to private facilities as the condition of government primary healthcare isn’t up to the mark.
Saying that he isn’t a pessimist and that he believes in the democracy, Sen hoped for the upcoming elections to bring good results in the field of primary education and healthcare."
He juxtaposed India and China and said that the neighboring country can learn democracy from us but we have to learn how their economy progressed so rapidly.
"Improved primary healthcare and education have caused economic progress in China. They can produce a lot of things. Because the people there have basic education and they can maintain quality control," Mr. Sen said.