Health Policy in India: A Historical Perspective

The role of history in policy making is well recognised. Historical linkages define the policy making in a country and thereby the ensuing path that the policy discourse will take in the time to come. Various researchers across the world have studied the impact that decisions taken in the past have on healthcare systems. These studies quite explicitly demonstrate the need for understanding the historical context in which a policy has originated. Thus in order to understand how policy making with reference to healthcare in India has evolved, this paper takes a holistic approach towards understanding the position of political institutions and the significance of timing and sequence on the future development of healthcare policies. The paper studies the evolution of healthcare policies in India since independence and tries to understand as to how decisions taken in earlier years chart a path for the decision making in the future.