Rural Health System in India: A Review

Rural Health is one of vital elements of rural life. India being a nation of villages requires an intensive approach towards rural health. Nearly 75 per cent of health infrastructure and other health resources are concentrated in urban areas. Even if several government programmes for growth of rural healthcare have been initiated, the procedural delay in implementation leads to its ineffectiveness. Rural areas have been infected with various contagious diseases like diarrhea, amoebiasis, typhoid, infectious hepatitis, worm infestations, measles, malaria, tuberculosis, whooping cough, respiratory infections, pneumonia and reproductive tract infections. The insanitary conditions of households aggravate expansion of these diseases which is further promoted by apathy of people and government. Although unit level institution under rural healthcare takes care of sanitation through its outreach services yet, there is a long milestone to upgrade our health scenario. Rural Health Care services in India are mainly based on Primary health care, which envisages attainment of healthy status for all. The Primary Health Centre (PHC) has been stated to be prime location for diagnosis and first referral of these patients. The coordination between primary and tertiary level institutions needs to be strengthened for overcoming present challenges. The current paper seeks to pinpoint key challenges of rural health system and possible strategies taken by the state for overcoming them.