Don't permit permit pvt insurance and pharma companies to access personal data: CPI(M) on Health Data policy

Demanding that the government should postpone the rolling out of the Health Data Management Policy (HDMP) and National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) till a full-fledged discussion takes place, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Monday said that the proposal entails collection of sensitive personal data and handing them over to private insurance and pharma companies.

Calling it a "serious breach" of personal data, he tweeted that the Modi government cannot permit access to sensitive personal data of Indians for the profits of private corporates.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said the government has sought comments on the HDMP by September 3 and this needs to be postponed, as no policy should be finalised before a structured discussion on the serious implications contained in this draft are considered.

Yechury said such a discussion becomes "imperative" given the fact that the HDMP is part of the NDHM that was announced by Modi during his Independence Day speech on August 15. Strangely, he said, the government has sought comments on the HDMP in isolation and not the NDHM as a whole.

"The NDHM proposes to collect sensitive personal data of all citizens which will then be made available to private insurance corporations and the pharmaceutical companies. This is a serious breach of protection of personal data," he wrote in the letter.

The CPI(M) leader said the Personal Data Protection Bill 2019, which was introduced after considerable discussion, is pending in Parliament and the proposed policy makes no reference to this Bill. "In fact the proposed HDMP has many provisions that amount to a serious dilution of the essence of the Bill before Parliament, regarding governance of data protection," he said in the letter.

"No implementation of any Mission can be made unless parliament and its structures like the Standing Committee consider these proposals in depth. Hence, we urge you to defer the date of September 3, 2020 as the final date for comments," he said.