India, Oct. 17 -- Many women in India live for years with illnesses and ailments they never mention to anyone. They know what these are, and often know exactly what these are doing to their bodies. But within their households, their illness is never made a priority.

In most cases, school fees might come first, followed by textbooks, and maybe the husband's medicines. Poorer households internalise this order early, where every rupee is already accounted for.

More often than not, a woman's own health often settles at the bottom of the household ledger because something else always feels more urgent, more important whenever a choice has to be made.

That old hierarchy, I believe, is now being rewritten at a systems level. The Ayushman Bhar...