Health care should be within the reach of every citizen. For providing basic health facilities to all citizens, government has introduced and implemented various health schemes and programmes. This section provides information pertaining to health programmes, policies, schemes, forms etc. for specific beneficiaries which include women, children, senior citizen, etc. Details of Union and state government agencies, departments, organisations, research institutions, hospitals are also available.
Health and family welfare has been at the centre of energy welfare programmes. It has been the area of prime concern for the government. Improvement in health and nutritional status of the population has been one of the major thrust areas for the social development programmes of the country. Within sixty years of independence, India has erected a vast health infrastructure including the government and voluntary and private sectors.
Improvement in health care facilities combining latest technological advancement and having accessibility of those facilities have resulted in substantial improvement in overall health situation in the country.
The development in the health sector is clearly manifested in the Infant Mortality Ratio (IMR) which has declined significantly from 134 in 1950 to 63 in 2002. The Infant Mortality Rate is, in fact, a sensitive indicator of health status as well as overall socio-economic development. The decline in IMR is reflected in corresponding increase in life expectancy at birth which rose from 32.45 and 31.66 in 1951 to 61.3 and 63 in 1997-2001 for males and females respectively. Crude death rate, which was 25 per 1000 population in 1951, declined to 8.1 per 1000 in the year 2002.
This improvement in health sector is attributable to a number of factors which include prevention and control of infectious diseases, application of latest advanced technology in health care sector and health care awareness among the masses.
Despite all these, we are not in a situation to be too happy. Much more needs to be done. The prevalence of infectious disease continues to be an area of major concern. Every year with the onset of monsoon we are faced with new problems of gastroenteritis, dengue fever, Japanese Encephalitis, malaria, etc. though the government takes steps to check the spread of these diseases, the situation, however, becomes difficult and them claim thousands of lives every year. Malaria is a great health problem.