Health Sector Underfunded, Unemployment Unaddressed in Union Budget: MP Sanjeev Arora
City Air News
Feb 1, 2025 08:12
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Ludhiana, February 1, 2025: Reacting to the Union Budget for FY2025-26 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday, MP (Rajya Sabha) Sanjeev Arora has regretted that the health sector remains underfunded, with its allocation still below 2% of the total budget outlay, which is inadequate to meet the target of 2.5% of GDP as health expenditure set in the National Health Policy 2017.
In a statement here today, he added that a recent SBI report suggests India needs to spend 5% of GDP on healthcare to adequately address the needs of the masses.
Adding further, he said that according to a study published in The Indian Journal of Public Health, India requires 138,000 new doctors annually to meet the growing healthcare demand. However, the planned increase of 75,000 medical education seats over the next five years falls short of fulfilling this requirement.
Arora also remarked that the budget favours election-bound states while neglecting others.
Expressing concern over unemployment, he said that no concrete measures have been outlined to tackle the rising joblessness, which currently stands at around 10%.
