Evaluation of Indian Rural Health Care Centre Programs: By the Application of Data Envelopment Analysis Technique

India's achievements in the field of rural health care delivery have been less than satisfactory and that burden of diseases among the rural Indian population remains high. Recognizing the importance of rural health in the process of economic and social development and necessary architectural correction in the rural health care delivery system to improve the quality of life of the citizens, the government of India has resolved to launch the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). Indian rural health policies and programs do not address significantly to improve the health status to the desired level due to lack of efficient evaluation system. This study uses Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to evaluate relative efficiency of rural health care programs. A typical statistical approach is characterized has a central tendency approach and it evaluates producers relative to an average producer. DEA is commonly used to evaluate the efficiency of a number of producers. In contrast, DEA compares each producer with only the "best" producers. The technique optimizes the relative efficiency ratio of current inputs over current outputs for each decision-making unit (DMU). The multiple inputs and outputs of heterogeneous rural health programs would be assessed simultaneously and helps to identify whether the programs are performing efficiently or inefficiently when compared to the other existing programs. In this paper, we have focused on the evaluation of programs with particular reference to Chikmagalur District, Karnataka, India.