Health Workforce in the Rural Public Health Sector in Assam : Current Status and Way Forward

By : Dilip Saikia , Hemanta Barman

Page No: 36-46

Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to examine the adequacy of health workforce in the rural public health sector in Assam. The findings reveal that Assam faces an acute shortage workforce in the rural health sector. Although the position of the state is better than the national average in terms of health workforce density and population coverage by health workforce, the national and global norms that exist in this regard are yet to be satisfied.The findings also suggest that both demand and supply side factors are responsiblefor the shortages of health workforce in the state.The paper emphasizes the urgent need to create the required number of posts and fill up the vacancies;attractive incentive packages to attract doctors and specialists to the rural areas;training to existing workforce to keep them up-to-date; and suitable human resource management system in recruitment, distribution and management of health workforce in order to resolve the problem of health workforce shortages in the state.

Authors :
Dilip Saikia : Assistant Professor, Department of Commerce, Darrang College, Tezpur, Assam.
Hemanta Barman : Research Scholar, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati.