Amartya Sen hopes LS polls will bring good result

New Delhi, Feb 16: Nobel laureate and economist Amartya Sen has said primary education and healthcare have not received the desired attention in India but sounded optimistic that the upcoming Lok Sabha elections will bring some "good results".

He claimed that schemes such as Ayushman Bharat and Rashtriya Swastha Bima Yojana do not aim at improving primary healthcare in the country.

"Just giving money will not help primary healthcare and the schemes are guided by narrow thinking... only to take credits," Sen said at a programme in Santiniketan on Friday.

He also alleged that the amount of money spent for improvement of health and education is not enough in this country.

"Primary healthcare is being neglected here," the Nobel laureate said, adding those who can afford it, go to private facilities as the condition of government primary healthcare is not up to the mark.

He, however, expressed hope that the forthcoming general election would yield some "good results".

"Everyone is excited about the forthcoming (Lok Sabha) election and we hope that the result will be good, the country will progress. I am not a pessimist. I believe in democracy," Sen said.

Comparing the primary healthcare services between India and China, he said the neighboring country can learn democracy from us but "we have to know how their economy progressed so rapidly".