India will miss its MDGs by significant margins: IIR report

India will miss its Millennium Development Goals by a "significant" margin as the initiatives for improvement in health sector taken by the country over the last decade were not enough to achieve the targets, a report released here said today.
India's MDGs, which have been fixed for 2015, for Under-5 Mortality Rate (U5MR) and Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) are 42 and 28 respectively while 109 for Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR).
According to latest figure in the report -- which pertain to 2012 -- the U5MR, IMR and MMR at present were 52, 42 and 178 respectively.
India Infrastructure Report -- "The road to Universal Health Coverage", a report released by IDFC also expressed concern over lack of government expenditure on health sector, which was barely one per cent of GDP, even as the total expenditure was four per cent of GDP, forcing most people to spend money from their pocket on health care.

The IIR is an annual thematic report that reflects a central contemporary issue in infrastructure development. It is a collaborative effort of academics, researchers and experts and taken as resource for policymakers, academicians and corporates.
"A large part of population has little or no access to good quality health care at affordable prices. Not surprisingly, on several of the basic health indication India ranks amongst the lowest in the world.
"The public health system is in jeopardy due to decades of appallingly low public investments, inadequate and antiquated infrastructure... Failed public health system have forced people to turn to private sector which is costly and unregulated," IDFC Executive Chairman Rajiv Lall said while releasing the report.

The report looks at the challenges of for ensuring "availability, accessibility, affordability and quality of comprehensive health care" to all.