Access of the rural poor to primary healthcare in India

Abstract

The 11th Five-Year Plan of India emphasises the wider and better coverage of services, such as primary healthcare for the majority of population. For this purpose, various healthcare related programmes have aimed at the vulnerable sections of the society traditionally using social criteria like Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) populations. Although they are found to have marginally worse health outcomes than the national average, they are far better than the one’s for the poor on economic criteria. The present article examines the coverage of basic primary healthcare services among the below the poverty line (BPL) population in rural areas of India and provides direct empirical evidence. Data used for the study was from a primary sample survey of rural BPL households in six states of India. The results of the survey showed that the coverage of primary healthcare services, such as ante-natal care (ANC), institutional deliveries, and immunisation was very low among the BPL population. Moreover, results of a comparison of the SC and ST and non-SC and ST population within the sample of the selected households showed that the former had a relatively poorer coverage compared to the latter. The focus of the programme for improving coverage of primary healthcare services should be on the BPL population. If it is done, it would also result in the improvement of coverage among the SC and ST population. Merely focusing on the SC and ST population will leave the poorest of the poor ignored and unattended.