Right to life is very basic so is the right to health. Equal opportunity should be created for all to health, said minster of state for health Dinesh Trivedi here on Thursday while releasing India Health Report 2010 by think tank Indicus Analytics in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian industry (CII).

“The release of the report is a great beginning, however, the next step would be to create a team of specialists and experts who will work to find solutions from the report,” said Trivedi.

The comprehensive report focuses on the future of India’s health sector and issues like access to healthcare, infrastructure availability, human resource, water and sanitation, nutrition, role of the government, ethics and reforms.

CII chairman of national committee oh health Dr Naresh Trehan said that this report is a reminder of where we are and also provides a kind of checklist of the gaps that need to be addressed.

The report says about seven to eight percent households are pushed below the poverty line because of expenses incurred on healthcare. It adds that in terms of nutrition, India does worse than some of its neighbouring and even African countries. “India remains home to one-third of the world’s undernourished children. The focus needs to increasingly shift away from merely foodgrains and toward the intake of a variety of foods in correct proportions,” the report says.

Contribution of private sector in terms of availability of hospital beds has gradually increased from 28 percent in 1973 to 61 percent in 1996. The report recommends that India needs to move away from disease-specific measures and develop a holistic public health regime and include mental and physical disorders and disabilities in the mainstream health system.

“The health ministry needs to be made more answerable for India’s poor health outcomes,” states the report.