Planning process under the National Rural Health Mission: achievements and challenges for better implementation

Introduction The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) framework for implementation envisaged that District Health Action Plans would be the central hub for decentralised planning, inter-sectoral convergence, implementation and monitoring. These would feed into the annual State Programme Implementation Plans (PIP). Communitisation, including village planning, and locally suited innovations were to be encouraged. District Planning did not however emerge as a creative tool in the eleventh plan period of the Government of India. This paper attempts to document the processes of planning under the NRHM at state, district and village levels. It also dwells on probable reasons for failure of use of the plans for resource allocation and implementation of the component strategies and activities in the plans.