USING INNOVATIVE WAQF PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT APPROACHES TO ENHANCE AFFORDABLE AND SUSTAINABLE HEALTHCARE FUNDING IN RURAL INDIA

Abstract

Historically, Islamic social institution such as waqf have been very instrumental in providing social services including healthcare to the poor and needy in society. Currently, the problem of financing health services is being raised in many developing countries including India. According to statistics, India’s healthcare sector falls below international benchmarks for physical infrastructure and manpower and even falls below the standards existing in comparable developing countries. About 75% of health infrastructure, medical manpower and other health resources are concentrated in urban areas where only 27% of the population lives. Estimates indicate that, India needs to open 600 medical colleges (100 seats per college) and 1500 nursing colleges (60 seats per college) in order to meet the global average of doctors and nurses. Meanwhile, India is one major non-Muslim country in the world that has huge and varieties of waqf properties and a comprehensive waqf Act for administration. However, Indian waqf properties have for far too long failed to provide benefits to the community as they should, partly due to undeveloped, underdeveloped, dilapidated waqf properties. The innovative utilization and development of these properties could have a far reaching and profound impact on the lives of rural Indians especially among the Muslim communities. This paper seeks to examine venture philanthropy as a possible innovative investment options and property development technique for India waqf properties in a bit to enhance and provide affordable healthcare finding in rural India. The paper adopts qualitative content analysis as a methodology and mainly reviewed literature from published articles and relevant reports. The conclusion suggests that, with proper innovative investments and development approaches for waqf properties such as venture philanthropy, there will be rapid improvement in healthcare funding particularly for the rural poor who barely have any or adequate access to quality healthcare services.