Previous Year Question

According to the National Family Health Survey-3 (NFHS-3), 2005-06, the private medical sector was the primary source of health care for 69.5% of urban households in India. This has been given as approximately 70% in the question.

Dependence on the private medical sector was also quite high in rural areas. Under NFHS-3, about 62.5% of rural households reported the private medical sector as their main source of health care.

Thus, private healthcare was widely used in both urban and rural areas at that time, but the question specifically asks about the figure for urban households.

Current Status: In the published national data of NFHS-5 (2019-21), the proportion of households generally using the private health sector was 51.8% in urban areas and 46.4% in rural areas. In comparison, the public health sector was used by 46.9% of urban and 51.7% of rural households.