CHAPTER II - HEALTH SERVICES <<Back
 
b) Community Participation & Role of Voluntary Organizations
 
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TI : The Tuberculosis Association of India.
SO : Bhore Committee Report 1946, 1, 104-105.
DT : M
AB :

This is a segment of the Bhore Committee’s report pertaining to TB and focussing on the history of certain TB organisations and their services. The desirability of establishing an All-India association for anti-TB work and of promoting closer co-operation between Government and voluntary agencies engaged in fighting TB was emphasised by Dr. Lankester as the result of his survey of its incidence in India. This suggestion was implemented in 1929 when it was decided that the funds, raised by public subscription, should be devoted to the promotion of anti-TB work in the country and the King George V Thanksgiving Anti-TB Committee was formed. The organisation consisted of a Central Committee (CC) in New Delhi and of branch Committees in the Provinces and States. The CC undertook the organisation of special training courses in TB for medical men at the All-India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health and the preparation of propaganda material. The CC’s Organising Secretary focussed attention on the TB problem through various activities. The next step in the All-India, organised, TB work occurred when, the excellent responses from the people and Princes of India to an appeal, led to the organisation of a broad-based campaign, in turn, resulting in the formation of the TAI, in 1939. The King George V Thanksgiving Anti-TB Fund was merged with the funds of the TAI. The CC of TAI provided expert advice and co-ordinated the activities of the Provinces and States. TAI’s main functions were the standardisation of methods, the promotion of consultation by conferences, the training of various types of TB workers, the stimulation of research and education of the public in anti-TB measures. The outbreak of the second World War crippled TAI’s activities to some extent. Nevertheless, three measures (the establishment of a TB clinic in New Delhi, the creation of the Lady Linlithgow Sanatorium at Kasauli and the formulation of the home treatment scheme as an essential part of the anti-TB campaign), attributed to Dr. Frimodt Moller, TAI’s Medical Commissioner, significantly impacted TB work in India.

KEYWORDS: VOLUNTARY ORGANIZATION; INDIA.
 
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