Why spat with India only hurts common Maldivians

The row between India and the Maldives has left many citizens of that country worried. Not only is Male losing out on tourism from India, but many middle-class Maldivians rely on India for their health and education. But how dependent on India are the citizens of the Maldives? Let’s take a closer look: Medical infrastructure, education First, let’s take a look at the country and its medical infrastructure. As per News9, the Maldives has just 330,000 people in 198 tiny islands. Just four of these islands have more than 5,000 people. Another 72 islands have less than 500 people.

Each inhabited island has a primary health facility.

But every atoll – which comprises 10 islands – has just one hospital for secondary healthcare needs. There are also six regional hospitals. As per India Today, India offers treatment such as complicated heart surgeries, cancer care that are simply unavailable in the Maldives. This, at a far lower cost than other nations. “In our country of 400,000, we had a registered cancer population of around 2000, and at present we do not have many cancer specialists working,” Dr Amru Ahmed, IGMH, Male told Economic Times. “In the journey of cancer patients in the Maldives, even until now, the full treatment cannot be completed in the Maldives, mostly because, as I mentioned before, PET imaging, radiotherapy, and these kinds of treatments require the patients to go abroad, and they need to travel abroad.” The website curlytales.com quoted data from BMC Health Services Research showing that India is among the top destinations for medical treatments for Maldivians. Around 98 per cent of the country’s citizens selected India rather than Sri Lanka for medical tourism. This is due to a slew of reasons including affordability, familiarity and proximity**.**

News9 also quoted data as showing that India was a top pick for Maldivians after Bangladesh and Iraq.

As per DNA, the Maldives has a public system that funds its citizens’ treatment abroad. Under this scheme, called Aasandha, patients can be sent abroad for specialised treatment – of which India is a top destination. As per Deccan Herald, hundreds of Maldivians have come down to Kerala particularly Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi to have their healthcare or educational needs met. Many hospitals have dedicated counters for Maldivians. Tourism The Maldives’ economy relies heavily on tourism as a source of revenue. It is estimated to account for a quarter of the country’s (GDP) of Maldives. India had the fifth most tourist arrivals in Maldives in 2018. [caption id=“attachment_13594642” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The Maldives’ economy relies heavily on tourism as a source of revenue.. Reuters[/caption] Of the total of 14,84,274 tourists who visited Maldives, around 6.1  per cent (over 90,474) were from India. In 2019, India nearly doubled its number of arrivals (1,66,030) compared to 2018. Even the pandemic didn’t blunt Indians’ desire to visit – India, with 63,000 visitors had the most tourists in the Maldives. That number only increased in 2021  and 2022 with with over 2.91 lakh and 2.41 lakh Indian tourist arrivals in Maldives. Indians comprised 23 per cent  and 14.4 per cent of all tourists in the respective years.

Till June 2023, India with 100,915 tourists arrivals had the most visitors to the Maldives of any nation.

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India is followed by Russia and China, as per The Hindu. Indians comprised 11.8 per cent of all tourists who visited. In March 2022, India and Maldives reached an open skies arrangement to further improve connectivity. A friend in need India has often come to the island nation’s assistance in its time of need. As per the MEA_,_ New Delhi was among the first nations to recognise the Maldives as an independent entity in 1965 and form diplomatic relations. From Operation Cactus in 1988 to being the first to help after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, New Delhi has been there for Male at every turn. In 2020, India announced a financial package for the Maldives to support the Greater Male Connectivity Project (GMCP).

The package comprised $100 million and a new line of credit of $400 million.

India has also extended eight ‘Line of Credit’ Projects worth $1.3 billion to the Maldives, as per News18. India in January 2020 quickly sent 30,000 doses of the measles vaccine to prevent an outbreak in the Maldives. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, India has established itself as the Maldives’ “first responder”. In January 2021, India gifted the Maldives 1 lakh COVID-19 vaccines within four days of their rollout in India. New Delhi sent another two packages of one lakh vaccines in February and March 2021. In November 2022, India handed over $100 million in assistance to the Maldives to ease its financial challenges. India also provides the largest number of training opportunities for Maldivian National Defence Force (MNDF), meeting around 70 per cent of their defence training requirements With inputs from agencies