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Digital health for all: The turn to digitized healthcare in India

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  • Al Dahdah, Marine
  • Mishra, Rajiv K.

Abstract

In India, the use of digital technologies has become the key to the everyday operation of the welfare state in terms of accessing essential and life-sustaining entitlements. In this context, our article explores the genesis of India's digital turn in healthcare and maps the characteristics of a ‘digital health for all’ policy, based on empirical analysis of India's first digital-based universal health coverage programme – Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) – with fieldwork material from the states of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. Being a smart-card-centred programme, RSBY marks the genesis of a digital approach to healthcare in India. The experiences of this scheme hold crucial implications for the digital healthcare landscape in India, as in the past its promoters pitched for its use to provide quality healthcare at lower cost. The technological design of the programme illustrates the construction and politics of a digitalized public-private welfare policy intended to meet the health needs of the poorest. By examining data on digital access to healthcare in the RSBY programme, as propounded and sustained by public health policies and a public-private model of governance, our article raises questions about the construction of new digital health policies and their contribution to private health markets. In doing so, it explores the key question of how digital technologies are transforming access to healthcare in India.

Suggested Citation

  • Al Dahdah, Marine & Mishra, Rajiv K., 2023. "Digital health for all: The turn to digitized healthcare in India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 319(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:319:y:2023:i:c:s027795362200274x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114968
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Rajiv K. Mishra, 2021. "The Appropriated Body: Biometrics Regime, The Digital State and Healthcare in Contemporary India," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(S6), pages 55-64, July.
    2. Kohli, Atul, 1989. "Politics of economic liberalization in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 305-328, March.
    3. Karan, Anup & Yip, Winnie & Mahal, Ajay, 2017. "Extending health insurance to the poor in India: An impact evaluation of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana on out of pocket spending for healthcare," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 83-92.
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