such interventions by governments, registering symbolic gestures or showing off an apparent concern for physical health of their people, are not peculiar to India or the developing world, in Europe or America, for example, stringent anti- smoking legislations have been passed not merely for preventing public nuisance but exhibiting a sense of anxiety for people's personal health. The concern of the governments for increasing the longevity of their people, however, cannot be taken seriously it one observes that there has Ernest Mandel been significant cut in the expenditure on health and welfare of the aged, including the old people's homes in many of these countries. Faced with the problem of providing basic amenities to the growing aged population who are both physically and economically handicapped, the per capita expenditure on the welfare programmes for the elderly has gone down significantly in the 1990s. In view of these, the avowed claims of the government to become custodians of personal health of people appears more of a hypocrisy and contradiction in policy.
