Health Department

Health care systems in India started with the British rule. In the beginning, the purpose of health care was to serve the soldiers and European civil servants and the control of epidemics like plague, cholera, rabies was started with the help of local self-government bodies preferably in the cantonment areas. The existing traditional medicine and Ayurvedic treatment were neglected due to the introduction of Western medicine under the British rule. Initially, treatment services were provided through hospitals and dispensaries in big cities. In 1940, the Planning Committee suggested providing health services in rural areas and organized training for 1 health worker per 1000 population and ratio of health workers. It was called Rural Health Team. Rural Health Service Dr. James Grad, Director, All India Institute of Sanitation and Public Health has implemented this program.

Around that time, the health service system was started in the state of Maharashtra with the financial support of the Bombay Provincial Government. Dispensaries of local self-government bodies were started at convenient places in the state and they were called civil dispensaries, later all these dispensaries were classified under Zilla Parishad. In the 13th World Health Conference held in the year 1977, the health organization and its member countries decided the health of the society as the main objective of communication at a certain level, and in the year 2000 it became known as health. It was recognized that primary health care is the key to achieving this objective.