Communitsation is one of the key strategies under National Health Mission. Various community participation platforms have been created to enable active participation of community and its representatives, especially the elected representatives of Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs) and the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), in Health Promotion and Action on Social Determinants of Health. They also play a supportive and oversight role to the Health System in both delivery of services and greater utilization of the public health facilities.
Village Health Sanitation Committees (VHSNCs), at the village level, Jan Arogya Samitis at Ayushman Arogya Mandir and Rogi Kalyan Samiti (RKS) in higher level health facility (DH/SDH, CHC) are the institutional platforms created for facilitating this participation of community. With the launch of National Urban Health Mission (NUHM), Mahila Arogya Samiti (MAS) were created at community level in urban areas. To strengthen ‘local level action’ of the VHSNCs, a community level campaign VISHWAS - Village based Initiative for Synergising Health Water and Sanitation with guidance for VHSNC members and community representatives was launched in 2017.