Voices from the Top of the Pile: Elites’ Perceptions on Rural Public Health Care Management in Karnataka State - South India

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Health is one of the prime concerns of mankind since his emergences on the earth. Health is a pre-requisite for human development and is essentially concerned with the well-being of the common man. The issue of rural health has drawn increasing attention both at the national and international level today because of elites role in health policies. In various platform elites have raised criticism focusing on poor health infrastructure and health behavior and its impact on physical mental social moral and spiritual health of the rural folks. In India there is a debate on the expected role of the elites in case of new health policies.OBJECTIVES To explore the perception ofelites regarding various issues of rural health care system in Karnataka south India.METHOD Primary data were collected from the selected 50 elites of the society using structured interview process.RESULTS ampDISCUSSION Elites found poor rural health infrastructure and the various socio-cultural barriers as main hurdles in implementing modern medical health care facilities in the rural parts. It was found that there should be a focus on improving the health status of the rural people stressing promotion of the scientific usage of traditional medicinal system and rapid improvement in rural health infrastructure.nbsp