India Has 5 Hospital Beds, 8.6 Doctors For Every 10,000 Population: Human Development Report

If there is one thing that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed is how ill-equipped our medical infrastructure is.

In the initial days of the pandemic, most of the states were struggling to make enough hospital beds and ICUs ready for COVID-19 patients.

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Though much has improved since a lot more needs to be done in the infrastructure front to make proper health care available for the population.

In fact, India has one of the worst records globally, when it comes to the number of hospital beds, in comparison with the population.

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India has just five beds for every 10,000 people, the Human Development Report 2020 has shown.

India is ranked 155th in the index and there are only twelve countries in the world that have an even worse record.

These countries include Uganda, Senegal, Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Nepal and Guatemala.

The data also showed that India has just 8.6 doctors for every 10,000 population.

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India dropped one spot in 2020 HDI rankings

India dropped one spot to 131 among 189 countries in the 2020 human development index, according to a report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Human Development Index is the measure of a nation's health, education, and standards of living.

Life expectancy of Indians at birth in 2019 was 69.7 years while Bangladesh has a life expectancy of 72.6 years and Pakistan 67.3 years, the 2020 Human Development Report said.

India, Bhutan (129), Bangladesh (133), Nepal (142), and Pakistan (154) were ranked among countries with medium human development, the report said.

India's HDI value for 2019 is 0.645 which put it in the medium human development category. India has been positioned at 131 out of 189 countries and territories, according to the report. India had ranked 130 in 2018 in the index.

Norway topped the index, followed by Ireland, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Iceland, the report showed.

Talking to reporters, UNDP Resident Representative Shoko Noda said the drop in India's ranking doesn't mean "India didn't do well but other countries did better".

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This year, with COVID around, the report introduces a new index by the name of PHDI. The planetary pressures- adjusted HDI (PHDI) retains the simplicity and clarity of the original HDI while accounting for some of the complex system-level dynamics discussed throughout the report.

This year's HDR report comes amid the pandemic. "COVID-19 responses have widened our imaginations as to what's possible. Life need not inevitably get worse due to planetary changes, but we must do more than minimise damages and commit to realising unprecedented futures," was a key finding of this year's report.