Impact of the Economic Reform Programme on the Quality of Human Life in India: A Study on the Health Indicators

Abstract

This article examines the impact of the economic reform programme in enhancing the quality of human life in India. The methodology adopted is to examine the existence of structural changes between the three crucial health indicators—life expectancy at birth (LEB), Child Mortality rate (CMR) and Infant Mortality rate (IMR) before and after the implementation of the reform programme. The article also focuses on the level of influence of the expenditure on health by the government and the number of Registered Medical Practitioners (RMPs) available to provide medical treatment on the three health indicators. We have used the Chow test to examine the existence of structural changes and regression analysis to find out the level of influence of the independent variables.

The analysis showed that the reform programme brought structural changes in CMR and IMR but not in LEB. The regression analysis reveals that the expenditure on health by the government had no impact whereas the number of RMPs available to provide medical treatment had some influence in improving the three health indicators. The article concludes that the reform programme in India had no significant impact in enhancing the quality of human life; it is concerned more on the fiscal, structural and trade adjustments rather than on social sector development.

Keywords

Economic Reform Programme quality of human life life expectancy at birth Child Mortality Rate Infant Mortality Rate Gross Domestic Product

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