Think
- How is the health system of India the way it is? (PHCs, CHCs, District Hospitals, free/cheap treatment, etc)
- What shapes the Health Policy of a country?
To begin with, there was no India. And in the geographic region that constituted India in the past, there were many systems of medicine being practised - ayurveda, unani, etc.
While Europeans came to India, they also brought with them the idea of modern medicine. Slowly there were allopathic hospitals being built.
1938: Towards the end of British rule the Indian National Congress was assuming more and more power in India’s matters. They set up the National Planning Commission in 1938 to plan for an independent India, which in turn set up the Sokhey’s committee.
1940: This National Planning Committee adopted a resolution based on the Sokhey’s committee recommendations and started thinking about health of the country - preventing & curing diseases, training people to do so.
1943-46: They set up Bhore committee called Health Survery and Development Committee which did all the hard work of visiting places, finding out what’s happening, why a lot of people are dying, how to prevent it, etc.
1947: India gains independence. Is all alone.