Rural Health Infrastructures in the North-East India

Abstract

Health is considered as an important dimension of human development. Good health is not only a prerequisite for well-being it also augments labour productivity and stimulates economic growth. While a well developed health infrastructure is crucial for attaining good health of the people, the health infrastructure in India is quite unsatisfactory. The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) launched by the Government of India in 2005 has emphasized on strengthening rural health infrastructure including physical infrastructure, manpower and other facilities. In this light the present study reviews the status of rural health infrastructure in the North-East India. This has been done by examining the progress in health infrastructure and health care facilities, the status manpower and the quality of health care services in the rural areas across the north-eastern States. The findings suggest that after the implementation of NRHM in 2005 though there has been significant improvement in the rural health infrastructure, especially in case of health centres, the condition of the region has been atrocious in terms of other components of health infrastructure, especially in terms of quality of health care services and availability of Specialists and well trained manpower.