The healthcare system in India  was in a dismal state before the reforms. First of all, there were very little facilities for healthcare and was limited to urban areas. Most healthcare facilities were run by the government and the conditions these facilities were in were pathetic. The biggest hindrance to the healthcare infrastructure was the presence of bureaucracy. Healthcare facilities were very few and were poor in quality. They were pathetic in terms of infrastructure, health facilities were poorly kept, no hygiene was maintained and it was inefficient, crude and primitive. Equipment were old and were incapable of providing quality healthcare. There were very few doctors. Most hospitals were completely understaffed. There were very few specialists. The worst part was the bureaucracy. The bureaucracy had an assurance of job security. They knew that they wouldn’t lose their jobs however badly they worked. This feeling made them more inefficient. They would work at their own pace and make things complicated.

With the coming of globalization, it has become a different story. Globalization meant that there was now more private participation. This meant that all inefficiencies were to be corrected and rectified. They reduced the job security and made sure that only the people who performed had their job. Medical technology from all around the world was now present in India. Private healthcare centers help the burdened government healthcare centres and some even extend their reach to the rural areas. Advanced healthcare techniques have now come to India and it has been helping patients from all over India. Many multinational companies provide for their employees’ health, saving the government from providing healthcare to them. The coming of globalization has also benefited the healthcare industry monetarily.

Globalization has also helped India to establish research and development facilities in the medical fields. This has led to a lot of new innovations in medical equipment, medical techniques and even medicine as a whole. Globalization has helped the pharmaceutical industry a lot too. Drugs from all over the world is available in India. Their standards are good compared to Indian drugs.

On the whole, Globalization has had a very good impact on India. In fact, globalization was required to reform the healthcare scenario in India from a horrible one to a good one.

Globalization has benefitted healthcare in India very significantly. Standards have improved and good quality healthcare is being imparted. Quality healthcare has started to reach the rural masses. On the whole, globalization has benefitted the medical scenario and has transformed it completely.

Globalization has also greatly improved the allied fields of healthcare in India. This is true especially in the case of Pharmaceuticals, equipment, techniques, research and development and Ayurveda. Globalization has ensured multiple advantages in all these fields.

Earlier, India used to have a lot of trouble in the pharmaceutical sector. It had to import medicines and they were over-priced. Globalization has changed all that. Multi-National Corporations have set up factories in India and produce drugs. This has lead to cheaper drugs not only in India, but in other countries also as production costs in India are much lesser than other countries. As a result, many Indian companies have also started producing high quality drugs. Earlier, the situation was such that there were very few drugs available in the market. Now, for each illness, there are a variety of drugs. Prices have come down considerably and the drugs are of high quality. As a result of this, health care costs have also gone down and healthcare has reached the rural areas where attention is needed the most.

Ayurveda has now become famous all over the world. Herbal medicine is being researched and it has been found to be very effective. Globalization has facilitated its popularity. It has promoted health tourism in India. Many tourists from all over the world come to India in search for cheap treatments and mostly for Ayurveda. Globalization has also promoted research and development in the medical field on a larger scale. Many Research and Development centers have been established for the sole purpose of creating innovations and cures and we have been largely successful in it.

It is not only pharmaceutical companies or cosmetic companies that test their cures, products or cosmetics, there are governmental institutes that research on new biological weapons and they use animals for their experiments too.  In these governmental research facilities, many innocent animals are killed each day in search of a biological agent which could have the potential to kill thousands, or even millions.

Are the lives of these animals worth only this much? Are they condemned to die in the name of research which in the end is going to harm and kill them? If something happens to the test subjects (which here are the animals) is it going to be nursed and cured back to health? The answer is NO.

Then why such cruelty to animals, one asks. They are giving up their life for the greater good of both human and animal alike.

When they are being tested upon, researchers have a code of ethics while operating on animals. They are told to inflict the least pain and discomfort on the subjects even if it means to completely stop the product. Bio-weapons here are an exception. When in the open, these animals are nothing but menace. They are filthy, they breed diseases and is a problem to the public. At least in the labs, they are put to some good use and they are well fed and well cleaned.
Most products are tested after having the indication that it won’t harm. When new cures are found, it benefits man and many lives could be saved. And it is not necessary that the test subject has to die in the process.

Many clinical trials are also done to find new cures for animals too. This could save lives of many animals.

However, the use of animals for medical research should be limited as they are also living souls and they are subjected to these experiments purely without any consent and by force. We should look for something like computer simulation and animation. Nowadays, computer simulation is used in determining the payload of a nuclear bomb which requires precise calculation and the simulator takes all factors into consideration. A similar simulator should be built to simulate a product’s effect. Hopefully in the near future, such a simulator will be built and we can spare the animals from unneeded sacrifice.

Some in the know have suggested using a reverse osmosis filter that should take care of the immediate problem. I guess the question at this point: do all the estimated 41 million people that are presently sourcing their drinking water from the basins that have been tested thus far for these water-borne drug pollutants purchase these special filters? They are first of all very expensive and the other negative side is that several gallons of the water that flows through becomes totally polluted for each one that is drinkable.

Add to this the evidence that adding chlorine, a common process in conventional drinking water treatment plants, makes some pharmaceuticals more toxic.

Meanwhile, some of the test facilities carrying out the procedures have voiced that the “parts-per-billion” is far too low to be of concern at the moment. In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania alone, test officials found traces of 56 various pharmaceuticals along with some byproducts in their treated water. There were actually 63 pharmaceuticals and/or byproducts that were found in their watersheds. There are many questions that are left unanswered. For instance, what about “drug interactions” as are sometimes encountered under normal concentrations prescribed to patients who have a need for them on a daily basis?

How Did These Pollutants Reach Our Drinking Water Basins?

The water works experts seem to have the answer to it all. Patients under prescription drug therapy, along with those sold “over-the-counter” for many years here in the U.S. would release the drug through their urine into our septic system. One test lab official commented that the “parts-per-billion” concentration were “insignificant”, somewhat dubious to say the least. There are so many questions that are still left to be answered. Researchers do not understand what the long term effects these low levels of these varied pharmaceuticals are having on the human body along with wildlife. The general public realizes that this polluting from pharmaceuticals has been going on for a long time.

Are There Any Possible Solutions To This Problem?

We are told unofficially by a few that as factories in industry are charged for their air pollution, there should be some sort of monetary penalty made to the pharmaceutical industry, possibly on the basis of yearly sales, or maybe they would have to supply the city and state utilities with the very expensive filters to clear up the water and make it safe for drinking. After all, the pharmaceuticals have provided the chemical polluters, so they should be responsible for the cleanup. One other suggestion is to pass an international law that would expand this requirement worldwide.

With all these suggestions the problem continues, the population keeps increasing, people still get sick and new drugs come on the market on a regular basis. One truth that cannot be denied, i.e., the present drug pollution level within our drink water supply sources will not go away, but only grow worst. As this particular source of our water pollution increases, more aquatic dependent fish that are consumed by both humans and animals will become more toxic, people will get sicker and they will require more drug medications that will continue the cycle and the syndrome goes on and on.