Panchayats in the health sector

In: Social change, Band 34, Heft 4, S. 47-60

Abstract

The health department is mainly responsible for infrastructure and the quality of health and family planning services. Other health-related considerations fall beyond the health department. The maternal mortality rate (MMR) in rural areas, for example, is deeply rooted in early marriage, early pregnancy and frequent pregnancy. These are social and cultural practices that need to be effectively handled by the community itself. If panchayats mobilise and sensitise people to health issues, notably, the need to raise the age of marriage manage anaemia, promote FP and remove men's ignorance and indifference, and there is effective partnership between the health department and panchayats, change could be effected.