In the Angara block of the Ranchi district of Jharkhand, the success of the ‘Healthy Panchayat’ initiative by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and Transform Rural India (TRI) is evident, particularly for vulnerable women.
To achieve the sustainable development goals, it is essential to have a community that is happy and healthy. This is also true for rural India, a sector governed by 2,55,000 panchayats that look after six lakh villages accounting for 68 percent of India’s population. The panchayat raj (local self-government) institutions thus play a pivotal role in ensuring that the developmental goals, including health, are met in the long term.
Gram panchayats (village administrations) have an important role in improving health and welfare-related issues. In the Angara block of Jharkhand, a number of them have succeeded in fulfilling health campaigns such as vaccination drives, observing Village Health Nutrition Day (VHND), and having Anganwadi workers provide health services at the doorstep to villagers.
As a part of the latter, pregnant women and children are also examined and offered services guaranteed to them by the government. Given the seamless coordination of activities between the relevant government departments, the panchayat and mahila mandals (traditional women’s organisations), such programmes go a long way.
Efforts have also been made to spread awareness on diseases like cancer, that happen to women. This includes drives to ensure that women test themselves for this disease, and understand the importance of prevention.
To that end, the gram panchayats of the Angara block are dedicated to ensuring that health services are constantly refined and that the well-being of the local populace is a paramount priority. After all, a healthy panchayat can ensure that the village is also healthy.
