Port Blair, Aug 04: In a crucial step towards ensuring the right to health for the residents of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Mr. Kuldeep Rai Sharma, Member of Parliament, has moved a Private Member’s Bill “the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Right to Health) Bill, 2023” today.
The proposed bill aims to provide comprehensive healthcare rights to the people of the Union Territory, emphasizing preventive, curative, and rehabilitative aspects of health and wellness.
The bill seeks to create a framework that guarantees access to adequate healthcare services for all residents in the region.
If passed, it will mark a crucial milestone in improving the healthcare infrastructure and services in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, addressing the unique challenges posed by the region’s remote geographical location.
In the said bill the Member of Parliament mentioned that the islanders of the Union Territory of Andaman & Nicobar, due to its geographical location remain susceptible to public health problems. This island located 1200km from mainland India, is beset with several bottlenecks, in terms of infrastructure in health care facilities as well as in the number of health care professionals available.
He added that looking at the overall supply of health care (supply side) and the health outcomes (demand side) scenario, the Union territory of Andaman & Nicobar still has miles to go in terms of improving its services in health care. The Post Pandemic scenario has thrown up new challenges for the island, which is grappling with the constrained infrastructure of healthcare facilities, further aggravated by the locational inhibiting factors.
The Member of Parliament mentioned that the GB Pant Hospital is the lone referral hospital for the entire Union Territory with specialized services in Surgery, Medicine, Gynecology, Pediatrics, ENT, Pathology & Ophthalmology, etc. The Union Territory has a total of 4 functioning CHCs, out of which urban areas have zero CHCs.
He added that the right to life and proper health care is an integral part of life and the quality of life of an individual depends upon the quality of healthcare. Thus, the schemes implemented by the government will be reaching out to more and will be implemented more efficiently if it is backed by legal sanction. Over the years Andaman and Nicobar islands have proven to be of strategic importance to the nation and have established itself as tourist hubs. In the first quarter of last year, the island saw a footfall of 1,36,190 tourists. It is only imperative that the health infrastructure of the island is robust enough to meet the medical needs of the tourists as well.
He mentioned that keeping in mind the violability of the life of an individual this bill seeks to provide the basic right to health to all the citizens of Andaman and Nicobar. In addition to this, this bill also casts a duty upon the government to protect the right to basic health care and the right to access healthcare for all its citizens.
The present Bill seeks to enumerate certain rights for the people of Andaman and Nicobar including free access to health care for all its citizens. However, these rights are not limited to what has been enumerated under this provision but are also in addition to what has been provided by the constitution and in other laws for the time being in force. Further, under the proposed bill, certain duties have also been entrusted to the Government. Thus, in a nutshell, this bill provides an inclusive approach to deal with the wide range of problems of healthcare and its accessibility.
Further, keeping in mind the financial condition of all its citizens of the Andaman and Nicobar islands, this bill provides free access to healthcare in cases as enumerated under the provision of the bill, he added.
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