The Government of Bihar has taken the initiative to organize Village Health & Nutrition Day (VHND) under the umbrella of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) to strengthen the service delivery through an integrated approach to ensure services to the underserved especially those living in the hard to reach areas In order to facilitate success of VHND, theatre based campaigns are being carried out in Vaishali, Gaya, Darbhanga, Purnia and Bhagalpur districts of Bihar to improve usage of services offered at the Anganwadi centre (AWC) on VHND.

Key problems regarding access to health care identified during baseline study were inadequate infrastructure in health centres, myths and misconceptions among community regarding immunization and health services, lack of awareness among service providers on the services to be made available on VHND, weak linkage between service providers and service seekers.

To address this, an innovative approach of organizing community forums called Community Development Meetings (CDM) is being used at Vaishali district. The meetings are facilitating dialogue and reducing gap between the service providers and the service seekers. Various health and social issues are being discussed and solutions are suggested by the village level leaders. Several actions have been taken up by the Panchayat while in some cases the Block and District officials have been approached for taking actions. As an important outcome of the CDMs, the health workers are now putting up information sheets displaying the medicine availability and take home ration in their respective centers thus spreading awareness among community about health service delivery.

The Government of Bihar has taken the initiative to organize Village Health & Nutrition Day (VHND) under the umbrella of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) to strengthen the service delivery through an integrated approach to ensure services to the underserved especially those living in the hard to reach areas In order to facilitate success of VHND, theatre based campaigns are being carried out in Vaishali, Gaya, Darbhanga, Purnia and Bhagalpur districts of Bihar to improve usage of services offered at the Anganwadi centre (AWC) on VHND.

Key problems regarding access to health care identified during baseline study were inadequate infrastructure in health centres, myths and misconceptions among community regarding immunization and health services, lack of awareness among service providers on the services to be made available on VHND, weak linkage between service providers and service seekers.

To address this, an innovative approach of organizing community forums called Community Development Meetings (CDM) is being used at Vaishali district. The meetings are facilitating dialogue and reducing gap between the service providers and the service seekers. Various health and social issues are being discussed and solutions are suggested by the village level leaders. Several actions have been taken up by the Panchayat while in some cases the Block and District officials have been approached for taking actions. As an important outcome of the CDMs, the health workers are now putting up information sheets displaying the medicine availability and take home ration in their respective centers thus spreading awareness among community about health service delivery.