A data tabled inRajya Sabhaon July 20 gave a snapshot of the budget spending of states for health & family welfare from the central allocation of National Health Mission (NHM). The figures indicate that Gujarats health spending increased by 18% from 2017-18 to 2020-21 from Rs 1,593 crore to Rs 1,894 crore.

Comparing the figure with other states, in the same period Odisha increased the budget spending by 55%, Maharashtra 51%, Rajasthan 50% and Madhya Pradesh 47%. Among the major states, only Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal were behind Gujarat. Year-on-year increase was just 1.6% from 2019-20 to 2020-21.

The RS data further revealed that 93% of the funds in 2020-21 went to the rural areas (National Rural Health Mission) and remaining 7% to urban areas (National Urban Health Mission). The year was the most crucial for the health spending due to the pandemic that swept across the region and caused high mortality in several cities including Ahmedabad and Surat.

National Health Policy 2017 categorically instructed the states to increase health expenditure as a Percentage of GDP from existing 1.15% to 2.5%. In case of Gujarat, the figure remained around 0.6% of the GDP.