Abstract Background The right to health has developed into a key constitutional and legal and policy matter that impacts all countries in the SAARC region because they have established different methods to safeguard public health and allow people to access medical services. Some countries recognize health more directly through constitutional or policy commitments while others utilize indirect health protection through their legal frameworks which include right to life and welfare principles and administrative measures. Research Question The study investigates the impact of constitutional and legal recognition of the right to health on actual healthcare access for citizens across SAARC countries. The study investigates whether legal entitlement matches the existing healthcare system which includes infrastructure and financing and institutional capacity and equitable implementation. Method The research uses doctrinal and comparative socio-legal methods to gather information from both primary and secondary sources. The study evaluates health rights in India and Bhutan and Nepal and Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and Pakistan and Maldives and Afghanistan through an analysis of constitutional provisions and judicial rulings and national policies and various legal and policy documents. Finding Discovery The research findings show that SAARC member countries recognize health rights through different means but their implementation of these rights fails to meet their constitutional and policy obligations. Service access is constrained by the absence of government funding and geographic impediments, and by limited institutional capacity and the demand for private healthcare services and continuing social inequalities. India provides an important reference point because of its development of jurisprudence under Article 21 and the unequal access to constitutional medical services by citizens.
Prajapati et al. (Thu,) studied this question.