Public Investment In Primary Health Care

Investment in health care for the masses amounts to investment on human capital, which is required to accelerate the pace of growth and development. The economic reform process that has been started in India since 1991 is expected to focus greater attention on the area of primary health care where market forces cannot be expected to give a socially optimum outcome. This book tries to examine the nature and magnitude of government spending in the area of health care in the pre- and post-reform years in Assam, a backward state within India?s North-Eastern region. The role and effectiveness of public sector primary health care system vis-à-vis the health care service requirements of rural households have been reported from analysis of some of the findings of the field study and the policy measures that would be necessary for human capital formation in the state of Assam has been worked out. The book should be of immense use to students, researchers and laymen interested in the health care system of Assam in particular and India in general.

Suranjan Sarma (b.1968), a Ph.D. from Gauhati University, is presently working as a Senior Lecturer in Economics in Dimoria College, Khetri, Kamrup (Assam). Besides completing two Minor Research Projects financed by UGC he has already published half a dozen research papers in reputed journals.