Revision summary
Maternal and geriatric care are social-development policies because they protect households at birth and in old age. JSY, JSSK, PMSMA and LaQshya improved institutional delivery; anaemia and quality gaps remain. NPHCE and the 2007 senior-citizens Act are the geriatric frame; home and palliative care are still thin. Ayushman Bharat can help only if Health and Wellness Centres actually deliver continuum care. Adequacy is staff, blood, referral and long-term care, not logos alone.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Social development is longer, healthier, and more equal lives, not only a rising GDP. Maternal survival decides whether a household stays out of medical poverty; geriatric care decides whether an ageing society remains dignified. Sound policy in both fields is therefore a development instrument.
Body
Why these two fields
- Maternal health is the inter-generational hinge: anaemia, unsafe delivery, and missing postnatal care transmit poverty and lost schooling.
- Geriatric health is the new demographic fact: longevity without pensions, joint families thinning, and non-communicable disease make old age a social-development risk, not a private family matter.
- Article 47 and the National Health Policy, 2017, already treat health as a public commitment; adequacy means money, staff, and protocols, not a scheme logo.
Maternal health — what exists and what sound policy adds
- RMNCH+A, Janani Suraksha Yojana, Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram, Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan, and LaQshya target institutional delivery, free drugs, and labour-room quality.
- NFHS and SRS still show high anaemia, high C-section in private care, and wide State gaps; adequacy means midwives, blood, referral transport, and respectful maternity care, not only a delivery count.
- Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres can hold antenatal and postnatal work if they are staffed; PM-JAY covers hospitalisation but not the whole maternal continuum.
Geriatric health
- National Programme for Health Care of the Elderly, dedicated OPD and some regional geriatric centres, and the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, are the thin legal-policy frame.
- NCD screening, palliative care, dementia, and home-based care are still urban-scarce; social development fails if the elderly only meet casualty wards.
- Recommendation: link NPHCE to Health and Wellness Centres, geriatrics in MBBS and nursing, and a public long-term-care conversation that India has postponed.
Together
- A society that loses mothers in labour and warehouses the old has not socially developed. Health policy is the bridge.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD M[Maternal RMNCH+A JSY] --> S[Social development] G[Geriatric NPHCE NCD] --> S AB[HWC and PM-JAY] --> M AB[AB] --> G[G]
Conclusion
Sound and adequate maternal and geriatric policies raise social development by protecting two ends of the life course. India has NHM schemes and a named elderly programme; adequacy still means staff, continuum of care, and State-level closing of NFHS gaps, not only insurance cards.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Critically examine the role of WHO in providing global health security during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2020 · Q9). View answer →
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Is PM-JAY enough for maternal and elderly care?
It helps inpatient costs. Antenatal, postnatal, home care and long-term geriatric support still need public primary systems.
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Why pair geriatric with maternal in one question?
Both are life-course public goods that households under-provide; both decide whether growth becomes social development.
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