A STUDY OF RURAL HEALTHCARE SERVICES: WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SHIVAMOGGA DISTRICT IN KARNATAKA, INDIA

India has a large public health care system. Rural healthcare service is provided through a Network of sub-centers, primary health care centers, community health centers and District hospitals. NRHM aims at strengthening of PHCs for quality preventive, promotive, curative, supervisory and outreach services to achieve and maintain an acceptance by standard of quality of healthcare, to make the services more responsive and sensitive to the needs of the communities. The literature review shows that earlier research mainly focused on macro level financing of rural health care and enough studies have not been made to understand the micro level issues. Very little research was attempted on managerial aspects of rural health care service delivery in India. In this context the general principles suggested by the WHO needs to be studied in Indian context. Therefore, there is a need to study the rural healthcare services in the new context and with new perspectives. An appropriate scaling technique were used to measure the response and all existing relevant document and reports were consulted and field visits were made to obtain first-hand knowledge of issues, problems and concerns. Discussions were held with the state, district and block level with current and former policy-makers. Purposive sampling method were used to select two villages in Shivamogga District; one each based on economic backwardness and other demographic factors. Stratified sampling method will be used at block level and village level. The study took sample of 210 from different select components of the rural healthcare services.