The Urgent Need for a National Commission on Public Health & Healthcare (Viewpoint Essay‪)‬

India's health system is not shining. The country is progressing on many other fronts, particularly with its growing economy and infrastructure development. Unfortunately, education and health, the two basic ingredients of human-capital development, have not kept pace with progress in other sectors. Consequently India's Human Development Index rank is only 134 among 182 countries evaluated by United Nations Development Program in 2009 (1). There is recent progress in the education sector. The Government of India (Gol) has taken steps to ensure free and compulsory primary education for all children, for which it has recently enacted the Right to Education Bill, making education of children 6-14 yr a fundamental right (2). If implemented properly, this will pave the way for equity in primary education (2). Currently moves are afoot to make even secondary education free for all children. These steps are initiated according to the 2009 election manifesto of the Indian National Congress (INC), the major party in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), illustrating that progress in social sectors begins with the articulation of vision by the political party that comes to power (3).