SPATIAL DISPARITIES IN HEALTH CARE INFRASTRUCTURE IN SOUTH 24 PARGANAS DISTRICT OF WEST BENGAL, INDIA

Health, a crucial human development indicator, is at a critical juncture at present. Access to public health services in many developing countries is hardly adequate. Inequalities in health care infrastructure loom large, resulting in poor health outcomes. Again these backdrops, the present paper opts to scrutinize the health care infrastructure and its spatial disparities with special references to South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. Based on secondary data, the paper seeks to develop Health Infrastructure Index with the help of several indicators, pertaining to availability of health care service, performances of the public health care center, and accessibility to health care infrastructure. The study revealed that availability of health care service in terms of doctor population ratio, primary health care center per 10,000 populations are far from satisfactory; the preference for home deliveries is high, poor connectivity and accessibility still poses a setback for good health care service.