Published Paper Details:

Public participation in health was first highlighted in the Bhore Committee report, 1946, and later in all the national health policies of India. However, the introduction of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in 2005 brought about the importance of community involvement and discussed the role and responsibilities of the Panchayat Raj Institution (PRI) in implementing health policies at a local level. This study mainly focused on the active participation of tribal PRI members in local-level health meetings, which directly affects the utilisation of maternal and child health policies. Further, apart from that the socio-economic conditions have been playing very important role to fulfilling the nutritional requirement; therefore, the study critically examined their participation in various areas such as: raising voices for creating employment opportunity for the local tribal families, making awareness about government facilities for increasing local agricultural productivity, actively monitoring the daily school routine etc. Research Methodology: Though it is an empirical study that deals with their active performance in local policy implementation, it requires an empirical method of data collection. To map their performance, the personal interview method has been adopted as the primary method of data collection. The study has also used the socio-demographic data of the panchayat office of Bolani Gram Panchayat, Kendujhar, Odisha, to compare their performance. Results show that the majority of them participated more in infrastructure development, whereas some selected women member actively raised their voices for better maternal and child health for their community.