Eminent economist and Nobel laureate Prof Amartya Sen has asked the
Union government to provide primary health care facilities to people,
particularly those coming from economically weaker sections of society.

Prof Sen said that the policymakers need to be more responsive towards
the common people. He also asked the state government to allocate more
funds for the district hospitals to improve primary health care
facilities.

Apart from this, Prof Sen laid stressed on the need for developing the
infrastructure in the district hospitals. The economist also called the
doctors and nurses to show more dedication towards their profession.

Prof Sen was speaking to the media persons on the sidelines of a
seminar on: "Have we given up on health equity” at NRS Medical College
and Hospital.

While lecturing over the country’s expenditure of just 1.1 per cent of
GDP on public health, Prof Sen said, “I think there has been deficiency
in the healthcare sector…primarily in its inability to mobilise
resources, lack of commitment, lack of organisational achievement and
that money spent is not spent very well.”

Speaking on the government failures, he said, “Our primary failures are national, to top it there are State failures.”

On the question of present global economic crises, Prof Sen said that
the “numbers” of the current meltdown is “nowhere near the Great
Depression of 1930.” According to 75 year old economist, Barack Obama’s
election as President of US is “one of the biggest expectations for
more open-minded policies by the U.S.”

He also said that instead from concentrating more on Indo-US nuclear
deal the Centre should emphasize more on how to provide better health
care facilities to the poor.

Among those who were present at the occasion were Left Front chairman Biman Bose and Industry Minister Nirupam Sen.