Health Hygiene & Sanitation

Lesson 08 : Responsibility Of Health

State Responsibilities

The responsibility for health does not lie with individual or community only but also with the state to ensure the health and welfare of its citizen. The constitution of India states that health is the responsibility of state. The state shall direct policy towards securing the health and strength of workers; men, women and children are not abused; citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter a vocation unsuited to their age or strength; childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and against moral and material abandonment; the state shall make effective provision for securing the right to work, education, public assistance in case of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement. The state shall make provision for securing just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief. It is the primary duty of state to raise the level of nutrition and standards of living of its people and the improvement of public health.

National Responsibility

India is a signatory to the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978.

What is Alma-Ata Declaration?

International conference held at Alma-Ata in 1978 ended up with the declaration.

1. Health is a fundamental human right and the attainment of highest possible level of health is an important social goal.
2. It is the common concern of all countries to reduce inequality in the health status of people.
3. Reduction of gap between the health status of developed and developing countries.
4. People have a right to participate in planning and implementation of health care.
5. Government has a responsibility for the health of its people.
6. All governments should formulate national policies, strategies and plans of action to launch and sustain primary health care.

The national health policy approved in 1983 has resulted in greater involvement of states in the management of health services.