The right to health is a fundamental right and to ensure its implementation, public health policy needs to be critically examined from a human rights standpoint. This article examines the right to health as an essential right in the economic and social rights discourse. A strict distinction between civil and political rights on the one hand, and social and economic rights on the other hand, is no longer valid in modern human rights discourse, and the state has an obligation to ensure the enforcement of both these categories of rights. Indian constitutional law, international human rights law and the jurisprudence developed by courts in India have underscored the importance of recognizing economic and social rights. This article explores how the right to health can be developed and promoted as a fundamental right falling within the umbrella of economic and social rights. It also examines the role of national human rights institutions in implementing economic and social rights, including the right to health. The article examines the healthcare situation in India and highlights the inadequacies of law and public policy to deal with issues relating to public health. The article argues for the constitutionalization of economic and social rights in India, focusing on the right to health. While the jurisprudence around the right to education has been very robust, the same has not been the case for the right to health. The article proposes a constitutional amendment to entrench the right to health as a fundamental right in the Indian Constitution and addresses how the right should be so entrenched. The article also explores the public health challenge in Hong Kong and Mainland China during the SARS crisis and uses this as a case study to develop an argument around the implementation of right to health as a social and economic right in India.