The pandemic hit the Beauty and Wellness sector like an unexpected tide, nearly drowning the industry. Inherently being a touch-and-feel industry, the social distancing norms made it extremely difficult for the industry to function as they require close proximity with their clients. The Healthcare Industry was at a special focus of the Budget owing to COVID-19 crisis that put a strain on the existing industry and highlighted the sheer lack of healthcare facilities in our country. The Budget 2021 came up with several proposals to help develop the Beauty, Health and Wellness Sector.

Primary Pillar:

The Budget proposal for 2021-2022 rests on 6 pillars and the primary pillar is Health and Wellbeing as it has been considered the most important sector of current times. With a holistic approach to cover the health sector, the Budget proposes both Curative and Well Being approaches for prevention of diseases.

PM AtmaNirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojna:

It has been proposed to outlay Rs 64180 crores over 6 years to support health and wellness centres, set up integrated public health labs, establish critical care health labs, strengthen National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and to expand health information portal. 

The main interventions under this scheme include:

• Support for 17,788 rural and 11,024 urban Health and Wellness Centers
• Setting up integrated public health labs in all districts and 3382 block public health units in 11 states
• Establishing critical care hospital blocks in 602 districts and 12 central institutions;
• Strengthening of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)
• Expansion of the Integrated Health Information Portal to all States/Union Territories 
• Operationalisation of 17 new Public Health Units and strengthening of 33 existing Public Health Units at Points of Entry
• Setting up of 15 Health Emergency Operation Centers, a national institution for One Health, a Regional Research Platform for WHO South East Asia Region and 4 regional National Institutes for Virology.

Nutrition:

The Supplementary Nutrition Programme and Poshan Abhiyan will be merged and launched as Mission Poshan 2.0. The budget has estimated Rs 2700 crore in 2021-22 for the Nutrition. It has come up with Finance Commission (FC) Grants worth Rs 13192 crore for health.

The department of Health and Family Welfare had been allocated an estimate of Rs 65,012 crore in 2020-21 which has been raised to Rs 71,269 crore in 2021-22, while Department of Health Research has been allocated Rs 2663 crore this year and Ministry of Ayush has been given Rs 2970 crores.

The Budget outlay for Health and Wellbeing is Rs 2,23,846 crores in Budget Expectation 2021-22 as against 2020’s Budget Expectation of Rs 94,452 crores. Thus, exhibiting an increase of 137 percent, a huge increase given India’s Health Sector Status Quo. We hope this brings about a positive change in the health paradigm in the near future.