Dewesternising Medicine : The Indian Efforts

Abstract

Dewesternisation/demystification/deprofessionalization of medicine denotes the efforts that are made to makes health service meaningful and within the easy reach of the common man. There have been many attempts in India to alter the health delivery system based on western medicine. The first was the licentiate degree. Although the licentiate system was stopped and the training of paramedical workers is not as fast as it should have been, still the attempt is to deliver health care in rural areas through paramedical workers. Community health volunteer scheme is yet another innovation in dewesternising health care, as is the anganwadi worker in the I.C.D.S. scheme. All these attempts at dewesternising medicine have met only with limited success because of the value system in the medical profession and the rural urban dichotomy that exists in the country.