Consideration of Health Capability Paradigm to Ensure Equitable Protection through Indian National Tuberculosis (TB) Prevention Program

Tuberculosis (TB), caused by bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis), usually affects the lung. Being airborne, TB has been one of the world’s deadliest communicable diseases. In spite of being curable and preventable, the disease has always been a continuous threat to human population. Moreover, there are cases of multidrug resistant (MDR), extremely drug resistant (XDR) as well as HIV associated forms. Recognizing this grave threat, the World Health Organization (WHO) urged every country to have a national program for tuberculosis prevention and control. After incidences of involuntary detentions of people with suspected TB in some places, WHO (2010) also recommended that national TB prevention programs should incorporate ethical considerations in them. Specifically, it prescribed that human rights and social justice issues should be given due considerations. Studies suggest that India, following the international recommendations, has rolled down a national program to prevent and control TB cases in the country. However, neither is there much consideration of ethics in it, nor there is any pronounced effort toinclude social justice issues. The present paper investigates how the inclusion of elements from social justice theory can actually help India’s TB program to address the issue of equitable protection. Specifically, it shows how insights from JP Ruger’s ‘Health Capability Paradigm’ can help India’s TB strategies to render equitable protection by addressing health inequities.