Shamika Ravi - Mentions and Appearances

India's toilet initiative, under which the government is trying to install 75 million public toilets by 2019, is not on its face a women's rights move, but it will increase women's access to sanitation materials.

Health insurance is just a financial instrument...It’s going to be as valuable to the client, or the patient, as the care that it can buy. [Rising demand for treatment] is just going to lead to all kinds of cost escalation...That is the nature of an insurance-driven market. Neither the caregiver — the doctor — nor the patient has any incentives to reduce costs.

"Gender bias gets worse as cost of care rises. Women are seldom brought to the hospital because the perceived benefits of providing care is not seen. There’s a gross neglect of girls’ health over their lifecycle. We need a strategy to tackle gender bias but so far efforts have been fragmented."

A Brookings report using NSSO data has shown that 15 per cent of Indians now have some form of health insurance compared to 1 per cent in 2004. Also, while nearly 62 per cent in Andhra Pradesh are covered, less than 5 per cent of people in UP have health insurance.