In India, 70% of the population lives in rural areas and about 15% in urban slums; further about one-third of our population is below the poverty line. Since the profit-oriented private medical services dominate over the public health services, most of the rural and urban poor people are deprived of proper medical care. In this article the focus is on health and medical care for the rural people and those who are below the poverty line. A new approach to medical care, which constitutes Western medicine as well as traditional practices, and which is also low cost, is presented. This can be achieved by (i) prevention and control of communicable diseases, (ii) promotion and development of traditional practices, (iii) development and utilization of cost-effective aspects of Western medical science and technologies and (iv) involving local people. An ICSSR/ICMR report describes a model to provide Health for All through a decentralized people-based system. Majority of the diseases are simple and can be handled by local communities, if they are educated and given proper training about health and medical care. Rural women are more efficient to tackle health problems. Several practical experiences reveal that such a community healthcare system for health and medical care is most efficient and highly cost-effective.
