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Polity & Governance
Mahesh

23/03/23 07:16 AM IST

Rajasthan Right to Health Bill

In News
  • Rajasthan, recently became the first-ever state to pass the Right to Health Bill in Assembly which now gives every resident of the state a right to avail free Out Patient Department (OPD) services and In Patient Department (IPD) services at all the public healthcare facilities.
Provisions of the bill
  • Free healthcare services including diagnostics, drugs, emergency transport, emergency care and procedure will be provided at the public institutions and select private facilities subject to conditions which will be formulated now. All citizens of the state will be entitled to emergency and accidental emergency care free of cost.
  • The Bill intends to, “provide protection and fulfilment of rights and equity in health and well-being under Article 47 (Duty of the state to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living and to improve public health) of Constitution of India and to secure the Right to Health as per the expanded definition of Article 21 (Protection of life and personal liberty)”.
  • The Bill makes it mandatory for the hospitals to provide treatment in emergency cases without waiting for medico-legal formalities and give medicines and transport facilities without charging money.
Right to Health
  • Health as a human right creates a legal obligation on states to ensure access to timely, acceptable, and affordable health care of appropriate quality.
  • This includes safe and potable water, sanitation, food, housing, health-related information and education, and gender equality.
  • The right to health includes both freedoms and entitlements-
  • Freedoms: include the right to control one’s health and body (for example, sexual and reproductive rights) and to be free from interference (for example, free from torture and non-consensual medical treatment and experimentation).
  • Entitlements: include the right to a system of health protection that gives everyone an equal opportunity to enjoy the highest attainable level of health.
Constitutional Provisions
  • India is a signatory of the Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) by the United Nations that grants the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being to humans including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services.
  • Article 21 of the Constitution of India guarantees a fundamental right to life & personal liberty. The right to health is inherent to a life with dignity.
  • Articles 38, 39, 42, 43, & 47 put the obligation on the state in order to ensure the effective realization of the right to health.
  • Supreme Court in Paschim Banga Khet Mazdoor Samity case (1996) held that in a welfare state, the primary duty of the government is to secure the welfare of the people and moreover it is the obligation of the government to provide adequate medical facilities for its people.
Source- Indian Express

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