Health care provision in India is multi-pronged, including a
tiered national health system, private hospitals, and a
multitude of alternative medicine practitioners.
The National Health Policy (NHP) was first formulated
in 1983 [3]. This policy-guided government effort aims to
provide health for all by outlining a time-bound phased
setup of comprehensive primary health care services
throughout the country. Under its aegis, health care services
in centralized hospitals were made free for people below
the poverty line, and numerous preventive programs were
initiatied. The first review of the NHP in 2002 focused on
the new objective of achieving an acceptable standard of
good health among the general population of the country by
advocating higher expenditure on health care with equitable
access to health care services [4].