Sir Joseph William Bhore was an Indian civil servant and diwan of the Cochin State. He is best remembered for his chairmanship of the Health Survey and Development Committee that charted a course for public health investments and infrastructure in India.
J. W. Bhore had been Under Secretary, Government of Madras when he was appointed by the Raja of Cochin as Dewan in 1914, succeeding A. R. Banerji. During his five years in Cochin from 1914 to 1919, Bhore paid attention to agrarian reforms in the state. The Tenancy Regulation of 1914 and the establishment of panchayats and co-operative societies in Cochin were among his major achievements.
Bhore Committee
Bhore is perhaps best remembered for his chairmanship of the Health Survey and Development Committee which was established in 1943 by the British colonial government. The committee was tasked with undertaking ‘a broad survey of the present position in regard to health conditions and health organisation in British India’ and with making ‘recommendations for future developments’ in this regard. In its final report in 1946, the Committee noted thus: "If it were possible to evaluate the loss, which this country annually suffers through the avoidable waste of valuable human material and the lowering of human efficiency through malnutrition and preventable morbidity, we feel that the result would be so startling that the whole country would be aroused and would not rest until a radical change had been brought about". Two particular recommendations of the committee dealt with the establishment of Primary Health Centres and the creation of a major central institute for postgraduate medical education and research. In pursuit of these recommendations, the Government of India established the first Primary Health Centres in 1952 and in 1956, it set up the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences. The decision to abolish the Licentiate in Medical Practice and to replace it with single medical qualification of an MBBS degree as the requirement to become a doctor was also taken up in 1952 on the basis of the committee’s recommendation. The Bhore Committee provided the outline for setting up an organised public health system in India and it was deeply inspired by the welfare state movement in the U.K. and socialist developments in the USSR. The Committee however has been criticised for overlooking the role of indigenous practitioners of medicine in the health system leading to a large number of private practitioners, who formed the mainstay of health care in rural areas and small towns, being ignored by the new system.
