Health promotion in rural areas in Punjab: Evaluating the role of village health sanitation and nutrition committees

Despite significant improvements made in the past few decades, the public or community health challenges are not only huge but are also growing and shifting at an unprecedented rate in India. The Government of India launched the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in 2005, under which many innovations have been introduced in the states to deliver healthcare services in an effective manner. The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) has positioned community ownership as central to its strategy, primarily through the Village Health and Sanitation Committee (VHSC). The VHSNCs are village-level bodies comprised of key stakeholders in a village and serve as a forum for village planning and monitoring. Engaging the community in planning and monitoring of health service delivery is central to enhancing the availability, accessibility, quality and use of the public health system. To a great extent, the actualization of the goal of NRHM depends on the functional efficacy of the VHSNC at the grassroots level. VHSNCs are intended to create awareness about health services and to empower communities to demand their entitlements. They are also responsible for planning and monitoring of public health and sanitation programs based on local needs. Along with that these committees also play an important role in prevention of diseases and protection and promotion of health. As there have been few efforts in the health sector that effectively evaluated the relevance and need of community participation to improve health at the village level, the present paper intends to evaluate the role of VHSNCs in a more comprehensive manner.