Question

What are the main characteristics of health of the people of our country?

Answer 1

Health is not only mere absence of disease but also includes the state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being of an individual. In other words, it means a sound physical and mental state of the individual. A person’s ability to work depends on his health. A healthy person can contribute more actively. Hence, health and development of a person are the integral parts of a nation's social and economic development.

It is very difficult to assess public health in terms of the single set of measures. So, various other indicators have been taken into account like infant mortality rate, maternal mortality rate, life expectancy and nutrition level along with the communicable and non communicable diseases. The various health indicators in India have been tabulated in the table below.

                Health Indicators in India

 

Health Indicators	India
Infant Mortality Rate/1,000 live-births Under-5 mortality/1,000 live-births Birth by skilled attendants Fully immunised Health expenditure as % of GDP Government health spending to 5 total government spending (%) Per Capita spending in International Dollars	68 87 43 67 1.4 5 96

Source: World Health Record 2005 and Economic Survey 2007-08