Community health in India

Community health is a process of enabling people to exercise collectively their responsibility for their own health and to demand health as their right. It involves the increasing of the individual, family and community autonomy over health and over organisations, means, opportunities, knowledge, skills and supportive structures that make health possible. The components of community health action include

Integrating curative with preventive, promotive and rehabilitative activities. Experimenting with low-cost, effective, appropriate technology. Involving local, indigenous health knowledge, resources and personnel. Training village based health workers. Initiating and supporting community organisations in all aspects of health planning and management. Generating community support by mobilising financial resources, labour skills and manpower resources from the community.