health in the Indian Constitution

A man falls from a train at a Mumbai suburban station, is carried to a government hospital, and is told there is no bed. He is sent to another hospital, and another. Is this only bad luck, or has someone broken a legal duty? The Constitution of India never uses the words 'right to health' in its list of Fundamental Rights, yet the Supreme Court has treated such a refusal as a constitutional wrong. This topic explains how that happened.

In two minutes

Health is not listed as a Fundamental Right by name; it enters the Constitution through Article 21 (life), which the Supreme Court reads as including health care, and through the Directive Principles that tell the State to raise public health.

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