Public Expenditure on Health and Nutrition in Neoliberal India

Social sector expenditure is very instrumental in the growth and development of the country. There are various studies both at the national and the international level that show that social sector expenditure plays a very crucial role in sustainable economic, social, and human development to achieve various development goals. Social sector expenditure is crucial in a country like India, where deprivation and impoverishment are very large and market forces fail to deliver and generate enough resources required for human development for the mass of the population for two and half decades. The same is evident in several development indicators in India. Hence, it is pertinent for the Indian government to intervene and increase its spending to ensure the delivery of basic necessities that are needed for human development. Hence, against the background of the increasing importance of public spending for human development in India, this paper has analysed the trend and pattern of overall public expenditure on Health and Nutrition, at all India levels and across a few selected states in India during the period 1980–2018.