Primary Health Care and Family Welfare Programme in Rural Gujarat

Programme in Rural Gujarat Sudarshan Iyengar Ashok Bhargava The family planning programme in India has expanded tremendously since 1961 with a steep rise in proportional allocations in both central and state budgets. This has led to an expansion of infrastructure as well as staff in many states, with a number of categories of non-health staff being drawn into the programme to help fulfill targets. This paper presents a brief review of the health and family welfare programme in Gujarat and points out that the programme is not only expensive but also generally ineffective. Moreover the single-minded approach to family planning has meant a neglect of primary health care, with programmes such as those combating malaria and tuberculosis, crucial to achieving improvements in health status, have been grossly neglected.