Child Survival Health and Social Work Intervention

Contrary to the old paradigm of economic growth in which health was viewed as an item of consumption, health is now recognized as a critical commodity of investment for social development. In the context of the third world countries it has been further said that the existing system of hospital based services has failed to reach the masses and there is a growing need of involving the local community in the delivery of health services on one hand and suitably modify the attitudes of the people towards Health on the other. Healthy children can be the greatest resource of any country. The most crucial period in a child life is the first five years during which about 40 per cent of physical and 80 per cent of mental growth and development occurs. In case of poor children, malnutrition causing lowered resistance to various infections in early childhood can threaten their very survival. Transfer of technology to field, particularly in the context of child health and survival is the third major concern of the present book. It is well established that no matter how sound a given medical automatically on its own in the field. Non-medical techniques like extension work or professional social work interventions are required for an effective application of knowledge form lab to land and people. The present book discusses the above mentioned social and health concerns in depth and reports on an experimental study undertaken in an urban slum of Vadodara city in India .The section of Social Intervention Some Core Precepts and Field Projects provides the necessary backdrop of conceptual framework and allied experimentation in the field.