Diversity in Unity: A Face off with Health Sector of BRICS Nations

Abstract

The thirteenth summit of BRICS nations was held recently under the chairmanship of India on 9th September 2021. No doubt it was a moment of pride which needs to be celebrated on political front, as all the five BRICS nations reiterated their commitment of enhancing intra-BRICS cooperation under the three pillars - political and security, economic and financial, and cultural & people-to-people exchanges, but have we got holistic pride as well? No, as we are far behind from three nations of BRICS; Federation of Russia, China and Brazil if we look at our health sector. A pertinent question arises why we lack compatibility with BRICS nations in health sector? If we look at the period from 2005 to 2019 the current health expenditure (per cent of GDP) is well below in India in comparison to other BRICS nations. The low expenditure affects the health-related amenities in terms of availability of beds, physicians, nurses and mid-wives etc. Thus, it puts pressure on the general public to spend more on health. This in turn increases out-of-pocket expenditure of poor citizens. The paper tries to examine the expenditure incurred by BRICS nations on health sector and find out the health services such as; availability of beds, physicians, nurses and mid-wives etc. It also examines the relationship between health expenditure and out of -pocket expenditure. The study will try to evaluate how healthy are the citizens of BRICS nations on the basis of few selected indicators related to physical health. It will look at the pertinent question; where India stands amongst all the nations of BRICS? In the concluding part policy aspects will be discussed so that each member nation can improve in the areas where it lacks so that overall health of the citizens of BRICS nations can go up. This will not only strengthen the bond amongst these nations but also make them prosper more as healthy human resource is the backbone of any nation.