COMPASS 2020 – A Conversation with Ms Shailaja Chandra on “India’s Health Policy”

Posted on June 3, 2020

Caucus Hindu College
Streamed live 3 June 2020

Topic: Health Policy of India: Challenges and the Way Ahead

About the Speaker: Ms. Shailaja Chandra, the former Secretary in the Ministry of Health& Family Welfare has over 45 years of experience in public administration. She commands special expertise in the areas of governance, health management, population stabilization and Indian medicine. She was Chief Secretary of Delhi until 2004. Since then, she has held several assignments under the Government of India and the Government of Delhi. She has been engaged in a range of policy based committees, one of which included the TSR Subramanian Committee to draft the New Education Policy 2016 and prior to that to review the Delhi School Education Act and Rules, 1973. During the last 10 years she has also been engaged in assignments connected with Public Libraries, chaired the Governing Bodies of two Delhi University maintained colleges and been associated with Apex level NGOs as well as the Boards of some Indian listed companies. Currently, she is a member of a two person Committee set up by the Green Tribunal on the Rejuvenation of the Yamuna and the abatement of pollution in the river. She is also the President of the Society of THSTI- Translational Health Science and Technology Institute and the Chairman of Governing Board of CHETNA engaged in furthering projects for women’s health, nutrition, education etc.Her book “It Crossed my Mind”( Rupa 2007) was selected by the National Library Kolkata for dissemination to 400 district libraries in India.She is the single author of the Status Report on Indian Medicine & Folk Hearing (2011& 2013). Besides, she has more than 200 articles published in leading National newspapers as well as research articles published by OECD, IDEA (Sweden) and WHO and several academic Indian journals.She continues to play a huge role in the field of medicine and public health in India and is a strong proponent of women’s empowerment.

Agenda Brief: Health is one of the most crucial aspects of any society. Good health infrastructure and government policies have far-reaching impacts on its economy, HDI and something as unlikely as tourism; almost everything good in some way or the other owes itself to a good health system. India, as a country has always understood the vital importance of health and medicine. Our medical history is rich with an understanding of the human body beyond its material aspect. The problems of the modern age like socio-economic disparities, a continually increasing population resulting in a massive brunt on the limited resources, the rural-urban divide, have proved to be a greater challenge to our country. The COVID Pandemic has emerged with more tremendous hardships for the entire community and is constantly challenging our health infrastructure, for good and for bad. In these challenging times, we must scrutinize our existing health policies and look into problems like the vast inter-state disparities in terms of health progress in India. It is only by recognizing the faultiness in our system that we can aim for a better one.