Kasturi's 3 year old daughter developed diarrhea, which itself was a function of water pollution. Her parents rushed the baby to the nearest government health centre 4 km away. When they got there, they discovered that the place hadn't been visited by a doctor for two weeks. The couple still have no clue why their daughter died.

Government health centres in rural areas and towns are almost always deserted and have precious little facilities; medicines are rarely available; many child-births go unattended, & many mothers bleed to death for lack of ambulances. Our infant mortality rate is one of the highest in the world. No nation has more people suffering from blindness and tuberculosis. We have the highest number of malaria deaths and HIV-positive cases.

Family planning has failed miserably - with the population doubling between 1976 and 1996.

At 0.7% of GDP, India spends less money on health than any country in the world save three African nations. Setting off a health revolution with a budget that earmarks the princely sum of 50 paise per patient is not an easy task. Funds for healthcare have whittled down from 3% of the budget to 1% in the past 45 years. A chunk of this reduced funding goes to urban hospitals and into the pockets of government babus at the expense of rural and poor people.