Budget 2019 Expectations: India Awaits Its First Well-being Budget
New Zealand with a population of mere 4.7 million has recently launched the world’s first well-being budget for the well-being of its citizens. The move has been applauded across the world and has received appreciation from numerous policy-makers. This roll-out of a well-being budget has certainly raised the expectation of the country from the newly sworn finance minister.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), India is home to mental health problems. Further, WHO estimates that India will bear an economic loss of 1.03 trillion of 2010 dollars’ rate due to mental health conditions, between 2012-2030.
Recently, WHO’s report highlighted the crisis of lack of proper mental health facilities and infrastructure. It brought out that Mental health workforce in India (per 100,000 population) includes psychiatrists (0.3), nurses (0.12), psychologists (0.07) and social workers (0.07). A simplified view of this report suggests that India has one psychiatrist looking for 3000,000 citizens, one nurse working for 1.2 Million people, and one psychologist for 7 Million people. The numbers clearly highlight the dearth of mental health experts and with the upcoming budget, a better scenario for mental health patients is expected from the government.
Highlighting the role of technology in the well-being of the Indian nationals, Tushar Vashisht, co-founder & CEO, HealthifyMe said, "The government must improve healthcare infrastructure and encourage the use of technology to bridge the access divide. Subsidizing online health consultation could also be another route to bridging the access gap in rural areas."
Concerning the lack of infrastructure, Senior Psychiatrist Dr Sanjay Chugh believes that, “If you look at the infrastructure looking towards preservation of mental health, there are not more than 5000 psychologists and not more than 1500 trained clinical psychologists who are looking at potentially treating morbidity that involves 10s of crores of ministers in India”. Further on the need to acknowledge well-being, he said, “If there is any development made in India or in any other country, eventually the aim is to keep the population happy, contented and fulfilled.”
However, it seems that India is far away from having its own well-being budget as the country’s focus would be more on generating jobs and implementing social security schemes. Dr Deepankar Sen Gupta, Professor of Economics, Jammu University said, “In India, it is not advisable to have a separate well-being budget but if it comes out then it will give rise to the pathway which will help us in identifying the gaps in our social security networks so that we can cover it completely.”
Further, Sengupta informed that rather than a well-being budget, the Indian government will be keen on bringing scheme on the lines of Aayushman Bharat which has a low expenditure but with a higher impact and inclusive.
India is already facing a mental health crisis and if the pattern of its negligence continues, the time wouldn’t be far when India would be on the brink of a mental health epidemic and it would be too late to recover the country from sufferings of mental ailments. Further, Budget 2019 suggests that the Indian government isn’t interested in following the cues from New Zealand’s well-being budget.
