INTRODUCTION 3 Amit Sengupta discusses the implications of WDR 1993 for the development of health infrastructure, even as he critiques the Report from a methodological point of view. Nayar discusses the likely implications of the structural adjustment programmes and the policy recommendations in the WDR on the environment. He notes a disjunction between the direction of economic policies and the pronouncements with reference to environment. India, he warns, may well become the recipient of garbage imperialism. In her moving account, Arti Sawhny shares her experience with the health component of a programme to empower women, namely the Women's Development Programme in Rajasthan. She reveals how structural constraints place limits on any "alternatives" that may be attempted. Given the World Development Report's concerns with reproductive health, her paper bodes ill for the health of poor Indian women. N.H. Antia characterises the prescriptions contained in the WDR 1993 as a prescription for disaster. He calls for an indigenous, people-oriented, health care system and a rejection of western, techno centric models of health care. The former would not only be cheaper but would respect the people; the latter dehumanises them into targets for various various vertical programmes. The papers presented—and those published here—call attention to the profound need for reconsidering some of myths that have, in tFe last few years, found wide acceptance among influential sections of oar society. These include the supposed efficiency of the private sector, as opposed to the axiomatic inefficiency of the public; the lack of accountability of the public sector whereas the market accounted for the private and so on. Above all, there is consensus on the need for an equitable political agenda. I am grateful to all the scholars who agreeu 10 participate in the seminar, and particularly those who wrote these papers. I am equally grateful to the staff, faculty and students of the Centre. Special mention needs to be made of my colleagues Rama V.Baru, Ritu Priya, K.R. Nayar and Imrana Qadeer. I also wish to thank the organisations which supported the seminar financially—and unconditionally. These were, the UNFPA, ICSSR, JNU and UNICEF. MOHAN RAO Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health School of Social Sciences Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi