The Institute of Health Management, Pachod
The Entrance to the Institute in Pachod |
The Institute Office in Pune |
The Institute was started in 1976 and was based on a former mission hospital in Pachod, a village in the state of Maharashtra in the West of India.
The work was originally centred on that hospital, but over the years has broadened to become mainly community based and now extends over an area equivalent in size to Gloucestershire.
Accurate computerised records of the populations of about a hundred villages have been maintained for nearly 25 years, and this unique record has demonstrated the improving health of the population as a result of various interventions that have taken place over this time.
The key interventions have been:
· Clean water provision in the villages
· The introduction of the Balsevak ("child who serves") programme in the villages where volunteer trained children teach hygiene to the other villagers
· The adolescent girls programme where trained village women run courses to teach girls household and empowerment skills and help postpone the age of marriage.
These programmes have received substantial grants from the World Bank, World Health Organisation, Christian Aid, Oxfam, and other American and European charities.
The Institute also runs major educational courses for governmental and non-governmental health workers who come to the Institute from many other Indian states.
In 1992 a study of the health of slum dwellers in the city of Pune (about 6 hours drive from Pachod) showed that their health was worse than that in rural Maharashtra. The Institute therefore decided to start a similar project there.
Link to IHMP