ANALYSIS OF STATUS AND INEQUALITY IN AVAILABILITY OF PRIMARY HEALTH CENTERS IN RURAL INDIA

Lack of availability of health care services is the major constraints due to limited availability of health centers. Primary health care centers have played major role in providing the health care services particularly in the rural area. The present paper examined the availability of primary health care centers in India, particularly in rural India. The paper used secondary cross section data along with appropriate statistical tools like F and t-tests. It is found from the analysis that there were 23236 PHCs functioning in rural India during 2005 and increased to 25354. The state of Uttar Pradesh had highest number of PHCs compared to other states. The PHCs are not signicantly increased in rural India during the period from 2005 to 2022-23. Hence, the respective governments during the period have not given considerable importance to health sector. Particularly, new PHCs are not sufciently built in the rural India. Hence, it is the responsibility of the governments to increase the availability of PHCs to rural people to serve as immediate relief for the health problem. At the same time, in Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal access to PHCs is very less compared to other states. There is very less access of PHCs in Bihar and very high access of PHCs in Kerala. Accordingly, the Government of Indian has to give support to construction of PHCs in rural area particularly scarcity of PHCs.