The National Convention on Health Rights will be held in New Delhi on December 11–12, 2025, coinciding with Human Rights Day (December 10) and Universal Health Coverage Day (December 12). 

About Right to Health

• International Recognition: The Right to Health is a core principle in international law, recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 25) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), Article 12. 
• Holistic Definition of Health: These international instruments define health as a holistic right, going beyond medical care to include safe food, clean water, sanitation, adequate housing, and a healthy environment as essential to overall well-being.

Constitutional & Legal Provisions for Right to Health in India

The Right to Health is primarily secured through judicial interpretation and enshrined in the non-justiciable parts of the Constitution:

• Article 21 (Fundamental Right): The Supreme Court has expansively interpreted the “Right to Life” to include the Right to Health and medical care.
• Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP): These constitutional mandates guide the State:
  • Article 38 & 39(e): Promotion of welfare and securing the health and strength of workers.
  • Article 42: Mandates provision of maternity relief and just, humane working conditions.
  • Article 47: Declares it the primary duty of the State to improve public health and raise the level of nutrition and living standards.
  • Article 48A: Calls on the State to protect and improve the environment, recognising a pollution-free ecosystem as essential for health. 
• International Commitments: India is a signatory to the ICESCR, which recognizes the Right to Health.

SC Guidelines and Landmark Judgments towards Right to Health in India

The Judiciary has upheld the State’s obligation to provide medical care:

• Parmanand Katara v. Union of India (1989): Ruled that immediate medical aid must be provided regardless of legal formalities.
• Paschim Banga Khet Mazdoor Samity v. State of West Bengal (1996): Held that government failure to provide timely medical treatment violates the Right to Life (Article 21).
• Sukdeb Saha v. State of Andhra Pradesh (2025): Recognised the Right to Mental Health as an integral component of Article 21.

Importance of Right to Health in India

• Ensuring Human Dignity and Fairness:
  • Protecting Human Life: The Supreme Court says the Right to Life means living with human dignity. 
    • Being healthy is the most basic thing needed for dignity, as an unhealthy person cannot fully participate in society.
  • Guaranteeing Fairness: This right makes sure that healthcare access is given based on need, not on how much money a person has or their social background. 
    • It demands that the government focus first on the poor, vulnerable, Dalits, and Adivasis, making it a powerful tool for social justice.
  • Mandating Clean Living: Since “health” means more than just medical care, the right forces the government to provide clean water, sanitation, good food, and a safe environment—the basic things that determine a person’s well-being.
• Stopping Extreme Financial Pain:
  • Fighting Poverty: India still has very high out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE), meaning families pay for treatment with their own money. 
    • This often pushes millions of families, especially in rural areas, into poverty or deep debt.
  • Making Care Free: Establishing health as a legal right creates a firm duty for the government to provide a core set of essential health services (including medicines and tests) free of charge at public hospitals.
  • Ensuring Affordability: The right includes the idea of Economic Accessibility, which means healthcare costs must not cause financial hardship. 
    • This helps to structurally reduce the dependency on expensive, private care.
• Making Public Healthcare Stronger:
  • Forcing More Spending: Turning health into an enforceable right compels the government to significantly increase its Government Health Expenditure (GHE), moving toward the target of 2.5% of GDP. 
    • This extra money is needed for better infrastructure, more staff, and new technology.
  • Building Trust: A rights-based system must be reliable and high-quality. 
    • This helps to restore public trust, which is key because the majority of vulnerable people (over 80 crore people) depend completely on government hospitals.
  • Setting Quality Standards: The right includes the core ideas of Availability and Quality. 
    • It sets legal standards for having enough hospitals, essential medicines, and skilled staff, ensuring the care provided is safe and effective.
• Demanding Accountability:
  • Legal Guarantee: The right changes health programs from discretionary government promises into constitutional guarantees.
  • Right to Sue: It gives citizens a direct legal path (in court) to challenge the State if they fail to provide needed medical care. 
    • This was confirmed in major court decisions like the Paschim Banga Khet Mazdoor Samity case.
  • Controlling Private Hospitals: The right provides a strong legal basis to strictly control and regulate the massive private healthcare sector, forcing them to follow ethical rules, be transparent about pricing, and respect Patient’s Rights.

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Challenges & Concerns for Right to Health in India

• Federal Constraint (State List): Health falls under the State List, requiring the Central Government to use either Article 252 (with states’ consent) or Article 253 (for international obligations) to pass an enforceable national act.
• Low Financial Allocation: Government Health Expenditure (GHE) remains below global benchmarks. 
  • While the National Health Accounts (NHA) 2021-22 cited GHE at 1.84% of GDP, Economic Survey 2024-25 provisional trends project an incremental push towards 2.0-2.1% of GDP for FY25. 
  • This is still below the National Health Policy 2017 target of 2.5% of GDP.

• Out-of-Pocket Expenditure (OOPE): OOPE, despite the decline to 39.4% of Total Health Expenditure (THE) (NHA 2021-22), remains financially catastrophic. 
  • Over 55 million Indians are pushed into poverty annually due to health expenditures, mainly concentrated in outpatient costs (70% of OOPE), which are largely excluded from public insurance schemes like PM-JAY.
• Challenging Privatisation and Unregulated Private Sector: The expansion of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) and the unregulated private sector remain a major concern. 
  • The nominal implementation of the Clinical Establishments Act (2010) allows for overcharging, opaque pricing, and patient rights violations.
• Disparities in Outcomes (MMR): India has made remarkable progress in reducing its Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR). 
  • The SRS estimate for 2018-20 is 97 per lakh live births, and UN-MMEIG 2023 estimates place it around 70 (reflecting an 86% decline since 1990). 
  • However, the goal is to reach the SDG target of below 70 for all states, and inequities in access to maternal health under NHM remain for marginalized groups.
• Access to Affordable Medicines: More than 80% of medicines remain outside price control, contributing significantly to OOPE.
  • The Parliamentary Standing Committee also examined the price to stockist vs the MRP for several drugs used commonly and found margins were as high as 600%, 1200%, and 1800%, a report said.
• Eliminating Discrimination: Entrenched social hierarchies continue to influence access, requiring specific attention to the experiences of Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, and LGBTQ+ persons, which is a key focus of a convention session.
• Implementation Failure (Rajasthan Act): The Rajasthan Right to Health Act (2023), the first of its kind, faced significant resistance from private practitioners, highlighting the implementation challenge and the contentious relationship between the State and the private health sector in ensuring the right.
• Infrastructure Challenge: Lack of functional infrastructure and human resources is concentrated in rural areas, denying specialized and emergency care. This inequitable distribution violates the constitutional mandate for Physical Accessibility and Availability of health services.

Way Forward

• Legislative & Governance Imperatives:
  • Enact Right to Health Act: Legislate a Central ‘Right to Health’ Act to convert the judicial promise (under Article 21) into an enforceable statutory right, ensuring judicial recourse for failure to provide care.
  • Resolve Federal Conflict: Initiate steps (potentially via Constitutional Amendment) to place Health on the Concurrent List for a unified national legislative framework.
  • Mandate EHP: Legislate a minimum, legally-defined Essential Health Package (EHP) of free services, diagnostics, and essential medicines available to every citizen in public facilities.
  • Regulate Private Sector: Ensure strict implementation of the Clinical Establishments Act (2010), enforcing the Charter of Patient’s Rights, rate standardization, and transparent pricing to curb financial exploitation.
• Financial & Systemic Reforms:
  • Increase Public Spending: Incrementally increase Government Health Expenditure (GHE) to meet the NHP 2017 target of 2.5% of GDP, prioritizing primary and secondary care over insurance-based models.
  • Strengthen Public Systems (UHC): Focus on decentralized planning and community-led models. Expand social security coverage (like PM-JAY) to address the primary driver of catastrophic spending: Outpatient Care.
  • Affordable Medicines: Propose the removal of GST on essential medicines and diagnostics, coupled with expanding the public sector production of generic drugs to improve accessibility.
  • Justice for Health Workers: Ensure better wages, secure employment, and social security for all frontline workers (e.g., ASHA, contractual staff) to strengthen the human resource base.
• Technology & Holistic Health:
  • Harness Digital Health: Promote the strategic use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital tools (e.g., Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission) in diagnostics and care delivery to bridge the critical rural-urban gap in quality.
  • Integrate Mental Health: Strengthen the link between the National Tele Mental Health Programme (Tele MANAS) and public health guidelines, leveraging its scalability (53 cells, 29.7 lakh calls) to make mental health support universally accessible.
  • Address Determinants: Integrate climate-health mitigation strategies and cross-sectoral collaboration (e.g., with environment and food security ministries) to manage health impacts from pollution and climate change.

Conclusion

The Right to Health, enshrined under Article 21, is a judicial promise requiring legislative action to achieve tangible reality. The National Convention emphasizes that this constitutional mandate must be realized through robust public systems and statutory enforcement of an Essential Health Package—ensuring healthcare for people, not for profit.

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