Abstract: India is a vast country with more than half a million villages. Only a few of these villages are blessed with adequate medical facilities. Most of the villages do not have necessary amenities like roads, bridges, healthcare centres, etc. Most of the times, the villagers will have to travel about 50 kilometres to get proper medical assistance. In this paper, we propose a rural medical aid system wherein one can get immediate medical attention. A system named ‘Rural medical aid’ is deployed in the Anganwadi centres in each village and through wireless and distance/tele communication, the residents in these villages can be treated under the supervision of doctors in district/taluk hospitals, thereby saving many lives. Using this model, we can keep a track of compulsory vaccinations, malnutrition, communicable and non-communicable diseases. The system can virtually reduce the distance between remote villages and districts/taluks. As Mahatma Gandhi once quoted “The future of India lies in its villages”. In this paper special attention is given to infants and women (during pregnancy and post-pregnancy).

Keywords: half a million villages, rural medical aid system, Anganwadi centres, district/taluk hospitals, wireless and distance/telecommunication.