Inform and Empower: Improving India's Health Systems

Abstract

Despite India’s rapid growth in the past decade, large disparities in health outcomes and health service utilization between the poor and the better off still exist. Furthermore, large disparities also exist between rural and urban areas. In this study I argue that skewed political incentives due to clientelism and a lack of accountability are the cause of these disparities. I contend that the central problem in the inequities is that people lack information about preventive health measures, about appropriate health services, and about how to demand better health services. Without proper information, individuals cannot demand the health services that they are entitled to. Thus, the strategy is to inform and empower the individuals.