Health of the people has long been recognised as an indicator of the quality of life. For improving the health of the people all efforts should therefore logically be directed to improving the quality of life. All health planning in our country has on the contrary, been directed towards producing more doctors, more drugs and building more hospitals. Such lopsided planning has improved the quality of life of doctors, dug companies, contractors and their middlemen, at the cost of the health of the poor people in whose name the entire health system stands today.

Ralegan has shown as to what needs to be done for better quality of life and better health of people, the latter being the consequence of the first. The most outstanding aspect of the Ralegan phenomenon has been that health of the people has improved without any special inputs into health care.

The important features of Ralegan's development with respect to quality of life have been as follows :
 

1.  Drinking water : Water shortage during summer months was earlier a perennial problem in Ralegan, giving rise to gastro-intestinal ailments, diarrhoea, guinea-worm infection and many other water borne diseases. By 1986 there were eight bore wells and everyone was getting piped, potable water supply within 100 meters from their residence, without long queues and daily fights.
2. Disposal of waste water : Almost every house has a soak-pit outside the house to take care of the waste water coming out of the kitchen and bathroom. In the entire village one does not come across a single standing pool of waste water. Water from the piped water standposts as well as from the public bathrooms is directed to plants and trees through cement drains.
3. Public toilets : Sets of toilets, urinals and bathrooms have been constructed in the village and one can see people queuing up to use them rather than defecating in the open. Public toilets have been connected to gobar gas plants and loose soil in the urinals is changed periodically to be used as organic compost.
4. Gobar gas plants and smokeless chulhas : Kitchens in Ralegan are not smoke dens any more. 28 gobar gas plants (many more have been added recently) and smokeless chulhas in 160 households have saved women from respiratory infections and sore red eyes.
5. Nutrition : All children in Ralegan look healthy as they get good, nutritious food at home as well as in schools. Fruits, green vegetables and milk have found a place in people's diet once their economic well-being is achieved. Fruits of trees planted on community lands are distributed in the school. The Balwadi children get milk as nutritional supplement from the co-operative dairy in the village. The boys staying in the hostel get nutritious meals from the community kitchen. The grain bank run by the villageTarun Mandal sees to it that no family in the village faces food shortage during lean periods.
6. Mental health : Men and women busy in their gainful vocations feel a sense of achievement when they get adequate information and guidance to improve their lot and required finance from the bank. The menfolk are no more victims of vices like alcoholism and women have no longer to drudge for water or fuel every day. The children are receiving good education in the schools. All this has made its impact on the family life which is more peaceful now. The sense of direction and a feeling of achievement is bound to have due impact on the mental and physical well-being of the people.
7. Health care services : The role of health care services cannot be ignored. There is a sub-centre in the village with an ANM (Anxiliary Nurse Midwife) staying there. It has responded well to the demand of basic preventive services by the people. The results are that 100% of the children are immunised, all pregnant women get antenatal care and advice including tetanus toxoid injections and Iron supplement. Eligible couple protection rate is so high that there are only 4 or 5 couples who are not coming forward for sterilisation operation even after three children. Even this high acceptance of planned family norm has come about without any intensive campaign of PHC employees coaxing people or big industrialists offering lucrative incentives. The sub-centre also caters to curative treatment of minor ailments like minor injuries or common fevers.

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