News & Events

Increase health spending from 1.2% of the GDP to 6% to provide comprehensive health care to all. Addressing a seminar organized by the NSS at the Government College Boys Ludhiana Dr Arun Mitra – General Secretary Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD) said that despite the recommendations of the planning commission on health to allocate 5% of the budget towards health, the government of India allocated only 1.9% of the budget to health. Quoting Amritya Sen, Dr Mitra said that health and education are the basic assets required for development and inclusive growth of any country and society. Our public health spending is among the three lowest in the world in line with Sierra Leone and Haiti. Therefore we are likely to miss the millennium development goal (MDG) to bring down infant mortality rate to 27 and maternal mortality rate to 109 by 2015. It is an irony that we spend huge amount on the arms race because of perpetual tension between India and Pakistan. Both of us have nearly 100 nuclear weapons each which if used could lead to death of up to 1.2 crore people. A recent study done by Dr Ira Helfand has warned of risk to over 2 billion people because of fall in food production resulting due to climatic changes in the event of a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan. He called for a mass movement on these issues. Many students asked questions concerning his talk. Present among the faculty members were Prof. Pooran Singh, Prof. Paramjit Singh and Prof Joshi.