PHM-Exch> India: In a first, Assam to guarantee right to health

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Kamayani kamayni at gmail.com


 *GUWAHATI: A quiet revolution to create a healthier India has kicked off in
the east with Assam on Thursday becoming the first state in the country to
introduce a bill guaranteeing the right to health and well-being.

Responding to an appeal from the Centre for legislating on health rights,
the state government tabled the landmark Assam Public Health Bill, 2010, in
the assembly. The bill, which will be put to vote on March 31 and should
sail through, proposes path-breaking provisions for health equity and
justice to achieve the goal of health for all.

It makes it mandatory for all new development projects to carry out a health
impact assessment. It also proposes to make it compulsory for both
government and private hospitals to provide free healthcare services and
maintain appropriate protocol of treatment for the first 24 hours to an
emergency patient.

The statute seks to bind the state health and family welfare department
legally to meet its obligations — coordination with other departments
concerned and providing people with minimum nutritionally adequate essential
food, adequate supply of safe drinking water, sanitation through appropriate
and effective sewage and drainage systems and access to basic housing
facilities.

The bill provides for the health and family welfare department to take
appropriate legal steps for fixing responsibility and accountability of
departments and agencies concerned in case of repeated outbreaks or
recurrence of communicable, viral and water-borne diseases, which are found
in a particular area and proved to have taken place because of the failure
to improve sanitation and safe drinking water facilities. *

In case government hospitals fail to provide medical care because of absence
of doctors, the patient will be entitled to remedial measures to be
prescribed by the department.
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