"India should have plenty of money" (due to outsourcing).
That's a commonly enough held idea here in the US, but - well - you're wrong, and I find your remark about India incredibly upsetting - let me explain how. Note, I don't expect you to agree or change your mind. However, it makes me feel better to say this -
That money is not heading toward about 75-85% (or by some accounts, even more) of the population of India. The poor. The poor in India aren't like the poor in America (in general). There isn't really a whole lot of 'trickle down' effect from wealthy corporations or outsourcing. There are people who are just living in, well, a very, very different India from that.
India may have the 'world's largest middle class'(of any single country) and it may have a lot of rich people, but there are a lot of Indias.
The situation of the poor even varies. In some cities they have access to a lot of services. In other areas, no.
There are still a great many people in India, who are a million miles away from benefitting from that outsourcing money, or getting any of those jobs. Of course it is even very highly debated if anyone who even GETS those jobs really benefit from them, there are very serious problems with those jobs, but that's another story. So is the future of outsourcing to India, but....that's another story too.
In India, poor people CAN get medical care from the government, and I believe it is free if the person's income is low enough.
And that is why Indian people often come to our country and are appalled that anyone is ever turned away from a hospital.
Providing medical care to the poor has always been an extremely important issue in India, ever since independence and the government has made great efforts to provide it.
However, there are problems with that service, and a great many people wind up going without very, very basic medical care. They may not be able to afford a bus, train or rickshaw to get to the clinic, and they may not be able to walk to the clinic (in their condition, or even when not in their condition). There can also be social reasons why people go without care. In the backward areas I as in these were acute problems.
For example, my friend has epilepsy because of childhood meningitis. All of the children in his village died in that meningitis epidemic. He was the only one that lived. When I was there, a child broke her leg. The parents were afraid that the doctors would amputate it(evidently they were terrified of what the doctors at the clinic would do), so it took considerable discussion on our part to make it happen. If we had not been there, I don't think the child would have gone to the doctor. I think the leg would have healed very slowly but I doubt work or marriage would have been possible.
Just for fun, I went to one of the poor type clinics for a given complaint and got treatment, so that I would see it first hand. I also went to a private doctor, and a hospital, to compare them. It was an eye-opener. At one doctor that dealt with the poor, the doctor (or perhaps a nurse or something, I don't know) were set up on the sidewalk with a little table. There was a line stretching for several blocks. People waited for hours. The doctor briefly examined about 90% of the people and told them there was nothing wrong with them. Next. Sometimes he gave people a single antibiotic tablet.
In the family I stayed with, the mother, the wife, and the aunt all died from untreated disease. The wife died of meningitis. The mother died of heart disease. The aunt died from bladder cancer. Several women died while having babies, and a man died when he got hit by a truck. Ambulance? EMT? What? He died. Treatment for developmental disabilities? Mental illness? Well, that's another story too.
There are very, very good hospitals in India. In fact, a great many people now go to India for 'medical tourism' - they get top notch surgery for bargain rates in India. But these are not hospitals that treat the poor.
Like I said there are many Indias.
I know that you think such a statement is really very clever, but what you don't understand is that you are talking about real people, that actually exist, and get sick, and die.
