Are Education and Healthcare Moving Beyond the Reach of Ordinary Indians?

After independence, education and healthcare were envisioned as the foremost pillars in the construction of a new India. It was believed that if citizens were educated, healthy, and aware, democracy would become stronger, social inequalities would diminish, and the nation would progress steadily on the path of development. Education was regarded as a means of building individuals, while healthcare was considered a means of preserving life. However, nearly eight decades after independence, the situation raises a troubling question: have these two sectors drifted away from their original purpose and become subordinate to business and market forces? Today, the distortions visible in both education and healthcare are not merely institutional crises but have assumed the form of a social crisis. On one hand, the education system has turned into an economic machine driven by examinations, marks, and competition; on the other hand, healthcare services appear increasingly entangled in calculations of profit and loss. The growing commercialization of both sectors has affected the common citizen the most. The fundamental purpose of education was never merely to impart knowledge. Yet today, education appears increasingly confined to degrees, employment, and competition.

The most alarming manifestation of the failures of the education system has emerged in the rising student suicides in Kota, Sikar, and other coaching and educational hubs. Kota, once regarded as the center of the nation’s academic aspirations, has repeatedly come under discussion due to increasing incidents of student suicides caused by mounting mental pressure, intense competition, loneliness, and fear of failure. The numerous cases of student suicides in Kota, Sikar, and other coaching cities over the past years have exposed the insensitivity of the education system. The suicide of a student in Rajasthan’s Sikar who was preparing for the NEET examination is a tragic example of this irony. The uncertainty and psychological stress arising from the cancellation of examinations ended a promising life. This is not an isolated incident. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 14,488 students died by suicide in 2024. On average, one student ends their life every 36 minutes. This is not merely an individual failure but a collective failure of the education system.

At the same time, repeated incidents of paper leaks, examination cancellations, disputes over results, and uncertainty in NEET, NET, recruitment examinations, and other national-level tests have created deep dissatisfaction and mistrust among students. It is natural for students who spend years preparing for these examinations to experience despair and psychological stress when the examination system itself appears unreliable. Today, the examination system is steadily losing credibility. Question paper leaks, cancelled examinations, disputes in evaluation, plagiarism in research work, the formalization of PhD processes, and the rise of coaching culture all reflect the commercialization of education. Education is increasingly becoming a matter of investment and returns rather than knowledge.

Gradually, education transformed from a service into a business. Large private schools, coaching institutions, and universities have today become industries worth billions. A market has emerged around the dream of producing doctors and engineers, leaving many parents financially burdened. Today, an ordinary family is compelled to spend its lifetime savings on their children’s education. High school fees, private coaching, competitive examination preparation, and the expensive structure of higher education have pushed education beyond the reach of the common citizen. The situation in the healthcare sector is equally concerning. Healthcare was once regarded as a field of service, but today the growing number of private hospitals and their commercial orientation have placed ordinary citizens under immense strain. Medical treatment has become so expensive that many families are financially devastated by illness.

The costs of treatment, diagnostic tests, ICU care, medicines, and the rising incidents involving counterfeit drugs have continued to increase. Complaints regarding unnecessary tests, excessive charges, and profit-oriented practices frequently emerge. The purpose of healthcare was to provide relief to patients, yet in many places it appears to have transformed into a profit-making system. Private hospitals and educational institutions have emerged everywhere and entered into a form of competition. However, this competition appears to focus more on profit than on quality. As a result, both education and healthcare are increasingly moving beyond the financial capacity of ordinary citizens. These conditions have also produced serious social consequences. Economic pressures, uncertainty about the future, educational stress, expensive healthcare, and unemployment are contributing to rising cases of depression, mental distress, and suicide. The younger generation is collapsing under the pressure of achievement, while families struggle under financial burdens.

The Ministry of Education must adopt a stronger, more accountable, and stricter role in making the examination system fully transparent, technology-driven, and secure. Similarly, it is essential to ensure that the benefits of newly established AIIMS institutions and advanced healthcare centers genuinely reach ordinary citizens in the form of affordable, accessible, and simple healthcare services. Today, the need is not merely to build larger hospitals but to make them fully equipped, staffed with specialists, and expanded into remote and underdeveloped regions so that dependence on metropolitan cities decreases and rural and marginalized communities can access quality healthcare facilities with ease. Through the New Education Policy, efforts have been made to make education more practical, skill-based, and multidimensional. New IITs, IIMs, central universities, AIIMS institutions, and medical colleges have been established across the country. New centers for higher education and advanced healthcare have been developed. The number of medical colleges has increased, and efforts have been made to strengthen healthcare infrastructure.

However, it would not be fair to say that the entire picture is bleak. In recent years, some positive initiatives have also been undertaken in the fields of education and healthcare. Particularly since the central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power, relatively serious attention has been given to addressing structural deficiencies in these sectors. In healthcare, schemes such as Ayushman Bharat have attempted to provide relief to poorer sections of society. Efforts have also been made to expand healthcare facilities to the district level. In education, emphasis has been placed on digital learning, skill development, and education in local languages. Yet, in a country with a vast population like India, these efforts cannot yet be considered sufficient. Government educational and healthcare institutions have not expanded in proportion to the pace of population growth. Consequently, the private sector filled this vacuum and gradually assumed a dominant role.

Now, the need is not merely to establish new institutions but to make public education and healthcare more effective, accessible, and purpose-oriented. The quality of government schools and hospitals must be improved. They must be equipped with modern resources, trained personnel, and greater accountability. Effective regulation of private educational and healthcare institutions is also essential. Education and healthcare cannot be left entirely to market forces because they are not merely economic activities but social responsibilities. Educational policy must be connected to society and life itself.

Today, there is a need to reconnect education and healthcare with their original purpose of service and nation-building. If these sectors become purely commercial enterprises, social inequality will deepen, talents will be crushed, and the common citizen will increasingly be excluded from the mainstream of development. India’s future direction will be determined by how accessible, equitable, and humane its education and healthcare systems become. The government, society, policymakers, and the private sector must work together to create a system in which no child is deprived of education due to economic reasons and no citizen suffers for lack of medical treatment. This was the original spirit of independent India, and it must also be the path for the future.