Human Resource Challenges in the Public Health Sector in Rural India

Abstract

Shortage of health workers in rural areas is one of the biggest problems faced in India’s health sector. This paper examines the current status of health workforce and human resource challenges in the public health sector in rural India. The findings show that the public health sector in rural areas across the country has suffered from poor availability of health workers even after more than a decade of implementation of the National Rural Health Mission. The density of health workers is abysmally low compared to the global norms. The paper highlights various human resource challenges in the rural health sector, such as, health workers shortage, lack of female practitioners, large scale vacancy, unbalanced skill mix, uneven distribution of health workers among states, absenteeism, and the quality of medical education. The paper emphasises on a compact package of interventions comprising regulatory measures, monetary and non-monetary incentives, workforce management, public-private partnerships, and task shifting, etc. to ameliorate the shortage of health workers in rural areas.