Health Sector Grant of ₹ 8,453.92 crore released to Local Bodies of 19 States

Grants meant to strengthen health systems and plugcritical gaps in the health care system at the primary health care level

The Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance has released an amount of ₹ 8,453.92 crore as health sector grant for rural and urban local bodies of 19 States.  The grants have been released as per the recommendations of the Fifteenth Finance Commission.  State-wise amount of grant released is enclosed.

The Fifteenth Finance Commission (FC-XV) in its Report for the period from 2021-22 to 2025-26 has recommended a total grant of ₹ 4,27,911 crore to local governments. The grants recommended by the Commission inter-alia  include health grants of ₹ 70,051 crore.  Out of this amount, ₹ 43,928 crore have been recommended for Rural Local Bodies and ₹ 26,123 crore for Urban Local Bodies. 

These grants are meantto strengthen health systems and plug the critical gaps in the health care system at the primary health care level.  The Commission has also identified interventions that will directly lead to strengthening the primary health infrastructure and facilities in both rural and urban areas and has earmarked grants for each intervention.These interventions are:

1. Support for diagnostic infrastructure to the primary healthcare facilities in rural areas – ₹ 16,377 crore
2. Block level public health units in rural areas – ₹ 5,279 crore
3. Construction of buildings of building-less Sub centres, PHCs, CHCs in rural areas – ₹ 7,167 crore
4. Conversion of rural PHCs and sub centres into health and wellness centre – ₹ 15,105 crore
5. Support for diagnostic infrastructure to the primary healthcare facilities in urban areas – ₹ 2,095 crore
6. Urban health and wellness centres (HWCs) – ₹ 24,028 crore

Health grants recommended to be released in the financial year 2021-22 is ₹ 13,192 crore.  This includes ₹ 8,273 crore for Rural and ₹ 4,919 crore for Urban Local Bodies. 

Rural and urban local bodies can play a key role in the delivery of primary health care services especially at the ‘cutting edge’ level and help in achieving the objective of Universal Health Care.  Strengthening the local governments in terms of resources, health infrastructure and capacity building can enable them to play a catalytic role in epidemics and pandemics too. 

Involving Panchayati Raj institutions and Urban Local Government as supervising agencies in these primary health care institutions would strengthen the overall primary health care system and involvement of local governments would also make the health system accountable to the people.

Health grants to the remaining 9 States will be released after their proposals are received from the respective States through the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Health Sector Grant released for Local Bodies

S.No.	State	Amount of Grant released (Rs. In crore)
1.	Andhra Pradesh	488.1527
2.	Arunachal Pradesh	46.944
3.	Assam	272.2509
4.	Bihar	1116.3054
5.	Chhattisgarh	338.7944
6.	Himachal Pradesh	98.0099
7.	JKharkhand	444.3983
8.	Karnataka	551.53
9.	Madhya Pradesh	922.7992
10.	Maharashtra	778.0069
11.	Manipur	42.8771
12.	Mizoram	31.19
13.	Odisha	461.7673
14.	Punjab	399.6558
15.	Rajasthan	656.171
16.	Sikkim	20.978
17.	Tamil Nadu	805.928
18.	Uttarakhand	150.0965
19.	West Bengal	828.0694
	Total	8453.9248

Health sector grants to local bodies strengthen primary health care and enable infrastructure upgrades and local oversight. Central release of health sector grants totalling Rs. 8,453.92 crore has been made to rural and urban local bodies in 19 States pursuant to the Fifteenth Finance Commission's recommendations to address critical gaps in primary health care. The Commission earmarked Rs. 70,051 crore for health across rural and urban local bodies with specific interventions for diagnostic support, Health and Wellness Centres, construction of subcentres/PHCs/CHCs, and block-level public health units; remaining releases to nine States await proposals through the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.