Health educators in India--a profile

While India has a long history of health education, its formal integration into health care services is just three decades old. In addition to providing health education through traditional or informal methods, the country has been stimulating the integration of health education through a professionally trained group of health workers, commonly called: "Health Educators". The impression remains, however, that "information giving" is the primary goal and function of a health educator, and, more often than not, his activities remain confined to publicity. This leads to a debate of the issue of: "who should conduct health education activities, a health education specialist or some other health worker"?