Can the Health Index by NITI Aayog act as a Handy Tool for Governance? Comment.

Indian Healthcare is in bad shape. There have been significant gains in the fronts of life expectancy, child mortality and also maternal health. But, as per the second edition of the Health Index by NITI Aayog, it continues to remain poor. A clear indication by the Index is that there is an urgent need to spend more on health, sanitation, drinking water supply and even air quality.
� There is a huge gap and variations in the state of health across the country even with most of the high-performing states not showing requisite gains under all these parameters.
� The government has to make huge investments on health, sanitation, drinking water, etc.
� The Health Index has ranked the health results of the states on the following parameters:
Neonatal mortality, immunisation coverage, total fertility rate, delivery infrastructure and also the flow of funds under the National Health Mission.
Kerala has the best performance and UP has the worst.
This can definitely be a potent tool for governance as only good governance can ensure all the benefits are passed to people who can thereby make improvements in their living standards and hence health.

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