India

The Republic of India, commonly known as India, is a country in south Asia. With a total population of 1,103,371,000 people (67 percent living in rural areas and 33 percent in urban areas), India is the world's second most populous country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world. It is the seventh largest country by geographical area and has a coastline of over 7,000 kilometers. India is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the east. India borders Pakistan to the west; the People's Republic of China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. The country's 26 states are bordered to the north by the world's highest mountain chain, the Himalayas. To the south, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Indonesia.

With the world's fourth largest economy in purchasing power and the second fastest growing large economy, India has made rapid progress in the last decade, especially in information technology. Today, India has a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita of $1,830. Total health expenditure per capita is $82 (2003 international dollars). Total health expenditure as a percentage of GDP (2003) is 4.8 percent. Although India's standard of living is projected to continue to rise sharply in the next half-century, the country currently battles high levels of poverty, persistent malnutrition, and environmental degradation. Literacy, defined as the population over age 15 that can read and write, is 59.5 percent. This percentage is highly segregated by gender, as 70.2 percent of males were literate, while only 48.3 percent of females were literate in 2003. The current life expectancy at birth is 61.0 years for males and 63.0 years for females. Child mortality per 1,000 is 81 for boys and 89 for girls. Adult mortality per 1,000 is 275 for males and 202 for females. In India, the risk for major infectious diseases is high. The food- and waterborne disease that are prevalent include bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever. Vectorborne diseases that are prevalent and are at high risks in some locations include dengue fever, malaria, and Japanese encephalitis.

Indigenous or traditional medical practitioners continue to practice throughout the country. The two main forms of traditional medicine practiced are the ayurvedic (“science of life”) system, which deals with [Page 898]causes, symptoms, diagnoses, and treatment based on all aspects of well-being (mental, physical, and spiritual), and the unani (so-called Galenic medicine) herbal medical practice. A vaidya is a practitioner of the ayurvedic tradition, and a hakim (Arabic for a Muslim physician) is a practitioner of the unani tradition. These professions are frequently hereditary. A variety of institutions offer training in indigenous medical practice. It was not until the late 1970s that health policy referred to any form of integration between Western-oriented medical personnel and indigenous medical practitioners. In the early 1990s, there were 98 ayurvedic colleges and 17 unani colleges operating in both the governmental and nongovernmental sectors.

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