Current healthcare system elitist, favours privileged: Jean Dreze

Kolkata, July 18 (IANS) Development economist Jean Dreze Friday said the current status of Indian healthcare distribution is "rather elitist" and biased towards the privileged and said the focus should be on strengthening public health services.

"I think the present system is elitist and benefits the privileged. How do you include the masses, the vast amount of people who are at the bottom and need quality services?" Dreze, a development economist who has been influential in Indian economic policymaking, told IANS on the sidelines of an event here

He said he was aware of the present central government's approach to healthcare.

Dreze's work in India includes issues like hunger, famine, gender inequality, child health and education, and the rural employment guarantee scheme.

The visiting professor at the department of economics, Ranchi University said: "Instead of veering towards the high-end of the population entirely, public health services need to be strengthened.

"Issues like malnutrition are still a matter of concern for India and an elitist view is not the way out."

Dreze, a naturalized Indian of Belgian origin, had conceptualised and drafted the first version of the rural guarantee scheme.