While India’s health profile shows some gains in the recent decade, the country’s investment in health has not been high despite relatively high growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the early 2000s. India spends less than 4 per cent of its GDP on health which is below the WHO’s recommended level of 5 per cent (Table 1). The Total Health Expenditure (THE) as per cent of the GDP has remained constant for a long time; it was 4 in 1995 and increased to 5 in 2004 then it declined to 4 immediately in 2005. Then it remained constant till the latest information available for the year 2011(World Health Organisation, 2012).
Reducing infant, child and maternal mortality, ensuring universal access to reproductive health services and reducing the unmet need of contraception are the key goals of ICPD and MDGs. Even after 20 years of ICPD and 15 years after MDG, the achievements in sexual and reproductive health services (SRH) indicators in India are quite far from the targets set. In this context, this policy brief is developed with an aim to review India’s SRH services implemented during the last two decades particularly after 1994 (ICPD agreement), with a special focus on assessing whether the services are universally accessible to all sections of the society.
