Challenging Times for Public Health Towards Attaining Sustainable Development Goals

[...]four other factors contributed to achieving less than expected outcomes: one, the infirmities in the design of our disease control policies, focusing more on technology than paying attention to behavior change. Reasons for less than expected outcomes include low attention to underlying social determinants, failure to develop appropriate institutional mechanisms to implement strategies, chronic underfunding resulting in large vacancies and the disbandment of public health cadres. In other words, it is argued that given the limitation of vertical disease control program approaches, what is needed is reconstructing the battered primary health care system. For addressing the serious shortage of human resources, the NHP has proposed a three-pronged approach consisting of reviving the multipurpose male worker cadre, empowerment of ASHA's to undertake preventive education at the community level and training AYUSH doctors, nurses and paramedics for six months on public health to position them in the wellness centers. First is the mismatch between the ambition in the text and the amounts being allocated. [...]is the need for laws-a public health law to regulate and make all stakeholders, including citizens, accountable. The recently drafted public health law is more in the mould of the old colonial law where the citizen's privacy in the name of disease control can be violated with impunity.