HEALTH activists and concerned citizens have tried for a long time to place healthcare and public health on the national policy agenda of mainstream political parties, with little success. The only connection between health and politics in India has been the link between politicians in power and private medical colleges and hospitals. That is not a particularly elevating story to tell.
A decade ago the Manmohan Singh government launched the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) scheme as the first real national-level policy intervention in healthcare. Both programmes have had limited success. In. . .