India has shown a remarkable progress in several sectors including health sector since Independence. Progress has not been made overnight. Government had to make a lot of expenditure on health services. Prior to Independence, India was lacking even a basic health facilities like the country didn't have enough hospitals ( government and private) which could have been used for the treatment of patients. There was a shortage of highly qualified doctors and nurses. After the implementation of economic planning a lot of progress has been made in health services in India. The proper implementation has ultimately led to the reduction of death rate in India.
In order to eradicate the dearth of health services completely, government has started basic health infrastructure by making primary and secondary health services available in both rural and urban areas. India has always been a home of some of the major diseases like malaria, dengue etc. Before Independence millions of people were dying due to such diseases every year. With the available health resources, treatment of all patients was not possible.
Hospital beds per ten thousands population have increased from 3.2% to 9.3%. Number of hospitals and dispensaries has increased by more than 7 times. The number of per medical workers has increased many times. In 1950-51, there were 725 primary healthy centres and in 1999, they rose to 22446.
With the above said growth in health infrastructure the death rate per thousand populations has declined from 27.4% in 1951 to 8.7% in 2000. Similarly infant mortality rate has declined from 183 per thousand to 70 per thousand in 2000. The life expectancy of an average Indian was 33 years in 1951 which increased to 63.5 years in 2001. Similarly, birth rate has declined from 39.9 per thousand in 1951 to 26.1 per thousand in 2000. Communicable diseases have been controlled to a considerable extent.
Even during today's time of corona virus crisis, India has managed to tackle the pandemic very well than many more countries. India has flattened the curve of corona virus and became the 2 country to conduct the highest number of tests without any sort of assistance from other countries.
