Introduction
Formation of Rajasthan Uttar Pradesh Catholic Health Association (RUPCHA): The Catholic Health Association of India (CHAI) mooted the idea of decentralization in the 1980s. That gave rise to the formation of the regional units. Member institutions (MIs) belonging to the various geographic regions got together and formed the Regional Units. Presently there are eleven such units. Even though the Rajasthan Uttar Pradesh Catholic Health Association (RUPCHA) was formed during the second half of the 1980s, it started functioning actively in the year 1988 with the assistance of CHAI zonal office at Delhi. It was registered under Society’s Registration Act 1860, on 14th March 1991. Since then it has been growing steadily and playing an effective role in the promotion of the comprehensive and holistic process of community health in the Region.
RUPCHA is a Voluntary, Not-for-Profit organization working in the fields of Health (Institutional & community levels), Education (formal & non formal), Social developmental, humanitarian & relief works. Its operational area spreads out into the whole of India with special focus on the 7 Northern States and 3 Union Territory (i.e. States – Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh & Uttarakhand and UTs – Chandigarh, Jammu & Ladakh).
Ecclesiastical Divisions: Our members are Catholic Healthcare institutions and we closely work with 18 Diocesan units, under the Ecclesiastical divisions of Delhi & Agra Archdioceses. The dioceses come under these divisions are: Ajmer, Allahabad, Bareilly, Bijnor, Faridabad, Gorakhpur, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Jammu- Srinagar, Jalandhar, Jhansi, Lucknow, Meerut, Simla – Chandigarh, Udaipur and Varanasi. Thus it caters to the needs of one third of the total geographic area and population of India.
As an umbrella organization, the association consists of 235 members of Healthcare institutions, Educational Institutes & Social Service Societies and it actively works together with member institutions to coordinate the health, educational and developmental initiatives and activities and/or pool resources. Majority of the member institutions are part of the rural outreach sector, operating from remote areas to provide access to the basic facilities to the rural poor and the urban slum dwellers. It provides humanitarian assistance to the marginalized & destitute communities and continues its endeavor for their social uplift.
RUPCHA has been a major stakeholder of the health sector and at the service of the marginalized people of Northern States of India for the last 33 years. 33 years of committed service in the health sector is a matter of fulfillment and pride for all of us. Majority of the member institutions are part of the rural outreach sector, operating from remote areas to provide access to the basic facilities to the rural poor and the urban slum dwellers.
The RUPCHA members taken together, collectively own healthcare facilities of all sizes (small, medium and large) as well as PHCs to super speciality institutions. All the members are committed to the cause of community health and community empowerment. The focused group that comes under the direct intervention of the MIs of RUPCHA are the women and children of the poor and marginalised people.
We have been making all possible efforts to promote the Community Health Process based activities through our field partners for the last three decades. In making the above efforts, RUPCHA was consistently guided by the commonly accepted concept of community health, defined as, “A process of enabling people to attain and maintain health,’ understood as ‘total well-being’ by themselves and demand health as a right”.