72 SOCIAL SCIENTIST
development of an integrated service covering preventive, promo-five and curative aspects of health and family planning, with universal coverage and full utilization of all resources. The committee spells out in detail four main areas for immediate action:
i) organization of basic health services within the community, ii) organization of an efficient programme of health services to bridge the community with the]PHC, iii) the creation of a national referral services complex and iv) creation of the necessary administrative and financial machinery for the reorganization of the entire programme.
This document, no doubt, is very important and capable of being a practical one if implemented properly by those with the will to do so.
The last paper in the book by Prof. Jacob Ghandy is different from others in the sense that it is not an alternative in health care delivery, but a proposal for the development of health as a science subject for teaching at the primary and secondary school levels and at the graduate level. He bases his paper on the experience he has had with training young village girls and utilizing them as teachers of health for high school students, and imparting health education to the community. Based on his experience, he makes a pica that health science be introduced as a subject for the B Sc course and the graduates be utilized for training in schools as well as in organizing school health programme on a wide scale-There is a plethora of 'health educators' in the health sector, but their effectiveness is questionable. However the use of such personnel in the educational field is a novel one, and needs to be tried out.
The main objective in publishing the book, as spelt out by M S Gore, chairman of IGSSR, is to stimulate further thought rather than to describe concrete solutions. After reading the book, anyone who has been in contact with newer developments in the field of health care in rural areas is bound to be stimulated by it. MALATHI DAMODARAN