Amend Article 21 of Constitution to make health a fundamental right: Villupuram MP

VILLUPURAM: Villupuram MP D Ravikumar has urged the Union law and justice minister Ravishankar Prasad and Union health minister Harsh Vardhan to introduce a Bill to amend Article 21 of the Constitution to make health a fundamental right of the citizens. The plea acquires importance when the country is facing major public health and economic crisis due to Covid-19.
In a memorandum dated June 1 and addressed to Prasad with a copy to Vardhan, Ravikumar said the Constitution does not expressly guarantee a fundamental right to health but quickly pointed out that there are multiple references to the public health and role of the state in the provision of healthcare to citizens.
"The directive principles of our Constitution provide a basis for the right to health," he said.
Citing orders of the Supreme Court of India, he said the apex court reaffirmed that the right to health was fundamental to the right to life and should be put on record that the government had a constitutional obligation to provide health services.
He further pointed out that a high-level group on the health sector constituted under the 15th finance commission had recommended that the right to health be declared a fundamental right.
Ravikumar recalled that the Union government under the leadership of late Prime Minister A B Vajpayee had declared education as a fundamental right in the Constitution. "This is the right time to amend the Constitution to make public health a fundamental right. So, I sincerely request you to bring a Bill in the forthcoming monsoon session of the Parliament to amend Article 21 of the Constitution of India and make health a fundamental right," Ravikumar said in the memorandum.
He cited Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) by the United Nations which said, "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and wellbeing of himself and of his family including food, clothing, housing and medical care.”
Ravikumar regretted that the despite the National Health Policy devised in 2017 proposed to raise public health expenditure to 2.5% of the GDP in a time-bound manner, the fund allocation for health got reduced in the successive Union budgets unfortunately.
"As a result, most people have to pay a heavy fee for medical care from out of pocket not only when they avail medical services from private sector but also for services available in the public sector medical institutions," he said.