Professor Amartya Sen has advocated important reforms in the realms of primary education and primary health care. What are your suggestions to improve their status and performance? (UPSC 2015)

Amartya Sen’s core idea is that education and health are not charity, but basic capabilities. Primary education and primary health care must therefore be universal, equitable and publicly funded, not left to market forces.

• Raise public spending: Move towards 6% of GDP for education and 2.5% for health through time-bound legal commitments.
• Focus on learning and care outcomes: Track literacy, numeracy, immunisation, screening and retention, not just buildings or enrolment.
• Strengthen early years: Link Anganwadis, pre-primary centres and primary schools for better nutrition, cognition and school readiness.
• Improve teacher and health-worker quality: Recruit, train and retain staff in rural areas with incentives, local accountability and career paths.
• Assure essentials: Provide safe classrooms, toilets, drinking water, free textbooks, medicines, diagnostics and telemedicine support.
• Reduce inequality: Target deprived regions, girls, SC/ST communities and remote habitations with extra funds and monitoring.

With stronger public provisioning, decentralised delivery and community participation, both sectors can expand human freedom and support inclusive growth.