Distribution of Benefits of Public Spending on HIV/AIDS in India

In India, though the prevalence rate is low (0.39%) (NFHS-III), yet due to her population size, it is important for the authorities to provide adequate provisions and healthcare in response to HIV. Response to HIV not only includes accessibility to affordable healthcare to needy but preventive actions to curtail new cases. Public spending on HIV is primarily comes from budgetary allocation. This paper attempts to investigate the benefit incidence of public spending i.e. the distributional incidence of benefit for different group of interest of public spending on HIV/AIDS. Data pertaining to government spending is obtained from the budget expenditure 2004-05 of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, which gives directions and implementation of programmes directed in response to HIV. Individual or household level data from household survey on usage of public service is obtained from NFHS-III data. In an attempt to know how many HIV positive households/ individuals opt public health facilities. In an attempt to know how many HIV positive households/ individuals opt public health facilities for healthcare quintile wise distribution of HIV positive population accessing healthcare is obtained. Based on this information, paper investigates the distributional incidence of public spending on HIV/AIDS in India.