National Planning Committee Series (Report of the Sub-Committee): National Health

This report by the National Planning Committee’s Sub-Committee on National Health was published in 1947. The National Planning Committee was formed in 1938 with Jawaharlal Nehru as its chairperson. It had 29 sub-committees, “…to deal with all parts and aspects of the national life and work in accordance with a predetermined Plan.” The Sub-Committee on National Health was chaired by Col. S. S. Sokhey (a biochemist born in 1887 in Amritsar, a military physician in World War I, the assistant director general of the World Health Organisation from 1949 to 1952, and a Rajya Sabha member from 1952 to 1956).The sub-committee was asked to examine the standards of diet and nutrition for all classes of India’s population; the nature and incidence of various epidemics and ways of preventing them; the incidence of infant mortality and mortality among women; the provision of necessary health units, comprising of physicians, nurses, surgeons, hospitals, dispensaries, sanatoria and nursing homes; health insurance; medical training and research; the compilation of vital statistics, including birth and death rates; the cultivation and production of necessary drugs and medicines for preventive or curative aid; and other connected problems.The report contains 10 appendices; Appendices I-VIII are written by members of the sub-committee, and cover such themes as medical training and research (Appendix II), a ‘Rural Co-operation Health Service’ (Appendix III), infant mortality and mortality among women (Appendix IV), finances for health programmes (Appendix V), the production of drugs and medicine for preventive and curative aid (Appendix VI and VII) and rural sanitation (Appendix VIII). Appendix IX is a compilation of vital statistics on public health in India; and Appendix X is the report of the 'Medicinal Preparations Sub-Committee’, appointed by the Indian Chemical Manufacturers' Association in 1939. Appendix I is missing from this report.