The Government of India in association with the states has developed a very comprehensive and useful policy on health that aims at achieving a phenomenal growth in this sector. The concept of community participation is contained in national health policy and is given much importance at the grass root level.

The broad areas of community participation at grass root levels are seen in the village health services scheme, the Anganwadi scheme of ICDS, and the formation of village level committees. Various NGOs are also engaged in villages and remote areas to eradicate the problems concerned with health.

Community action has also been successfully used in disease control programmes such as malaria and in areas such as the provision and maintenance of drinking water schemes and sanitation. The main constraint to community action is the low priority given to health by the community in contrast to schemes that provide direct financial benefit. A huge campaign to eradicate poliomyelitis through pulse polio immunization (PPI) was initiated in 1995 and in a decade the country has achieved significant success only due to the involvement of these organizations.

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