In defence of the National Rural Health Mission.

Amarjeet Sinha (amarjeetsinha@hotmail.com) is a civil servant and is currently with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi. have carefully read Shyam Ashtekar's article titled National Rural Health Mission: A Stocktaking (epw, 13 September 2008) and would like to submit that the article misses many issues and does not seem to place them in the right perspective. This response is not meant so much to challenge the wisdom of Shyam Ashtekar. He has been guiding the National Rural Health Mission's (nrhm) Accredited Social Health Activist (asha) mentoring group and the mission would like to place on record the learning from his insights. We value his views. As someone associated with the design and implementation of nrhm, I thought a few clarifications on some of the perceptions would be in order. The nrhm has deemed it fit to request the most independent minded nongovernmental organisations (ngos) to create a framework for community monitoring by organising public hearings and to help the mission in making public systems accountable. The mission has nothing to hide and would like transparency and accountability to community organisations to be a part of all its activities.