Insufficient medical coverage in rural India is seen as a major stumbling block to the development of rural tourism in the country where there is a shortfall of 16,000 doctors including 12,000 specialists in the rural vicinities. Just a few months back, Ambica Soni, in a move to promote rural tourism announced a massive financial package and support in order to go beyond the major tourist destinations in India. She was of the opinion that tourism in India must go beyond Taj Mahal, Qutub Minar, and Golden Triangle. She intended to take it into the rural vicinities, which is direly needed even. However insufficient medical coverage will anchor tourism growth in these areas which lack the most basic emergency medical care.
Two states that are affected badly are Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Taking into account the future prospects of tourism in India, these two states of India have immense potential to attract tourist footfalls in their vicinities.
Public health expert S. Sunder Raman told IANS; “In India, the patient-doctor ratio is around 1/30,000. And of course it will be higher in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh due to non-availability of doctors and lack of health facilities and proper infrastructure.”
The state of affairs in other states is also grim. Be it Assam, Orissa, Gujarat, or Punjab, rural India lacks basic medical facilities and in the present circumstances, the decision to promote the tourism in rural India could result in a flop show until the government takes necessary steps in time.
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