A Matter of Life and Death: The Unfinished Journey to Secure Healthcare for All

In this book—easily among the most important for India and the world today—the acclaimed social and human rights activist Harsh Mander shows us how active neglect and deliberate anti-poor policies have denied adequate healthcare to over half the world’s population. As he writes, ‘Approximately 4.5 billion people lack full access to essential health services. Two billion face financial hardship… Approximately 4.8 million children under 5 died in 2023, mostly from preventable causes. These include neonatal complications, pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria and malnutrition-related illness. Around 50% of these deaths were preventable with existing low-cost interventions.’

The problem, Mander points out, is not just the absence of healthcare services. A total of 1.4 million people die annually from unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and hygiene, and air pollution. The problem is most acute in developing econ¬omies—in India, for instance, over 2 million people die every year because of malnutrition and morbidity. In today’s world, with its scientific wherewithal and financial resources, almost all these deaths are preventable. The reason they are not, is deep and structured inequality, at the base of which are neo-liberal and discriminatory politics; capture of the world’s resources by big capital; rampant privatization; and the retreat of the upper and middle classes from the larger society in pursuit of affluence.

Having shown us the magnitude of the failure of both policy and conscience, Mander argues for the right to health as a fundamental human right. Universal basic healthcare, he insists, is achievable, and shows not only how it can be enforced legally, but also how it can be funded.