Strengthening Rural Surgical Networks in India: Decoding the Past, the Present, and the Future

Abstract

Societies worldwide are combating inequalities of various kinds. India is no different, with a mismatch in opportunities and responsibilities across urban and rural areas, public and private sectors, men and women, young and old people, different social groups, and several other dimensions of social public life. This gap is especially palpable in health and healthcare. The colloquial wisdom is that there are at least two Indias (India and Bharat): the urban elite with the crème de la crème of receiving the best of all worlds, including care at the hands of the finest surgeons at well-equipped corporate hospitals and the ‘others’ in densely-packed urban slums and rural and remote tribal areas struggling to get even essential and emergency surgeries when in need. All shades of disparity in access to surgery exist in this wide range from dream to dread.