In an attempt to make healthcare available to the people of India the Indian government created hospitals and healthcare facilities. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of doctors for these hospitals, and many Indians do not have access to them.There have been numerous programs directed against specific diseases in addition to a considerable expansion in the number of union and state-maintained hospitals. There are also rural primary health centers, which are poorly equipped and are run by minimally trained paramedical personnel. A government-trained doctor visits many of the rural primary health centers each week. Private medical practitioners supplement the government services, a great many of whom follow a variety of traditional medical systems. Of these, the ancient Ayurvedic system is by far the most widespread. There are roughly 100 colleges which teach this type of medicine, often with government support. Throughout India, the government uses its network of hospitals and clinics for immunizing children against various diseases and for promoting family planning. Family planning efforts, including the encouragement of voluntary sterilization of both males and females, have met with mixed success.

Diversity in the treatment of boy and girl children can be seen in healthcare and nutrition. Girls are subject to neglect from their families; often, parents do this on purpose. Studies observing life in Indian villages show that male children are fed higher quality food than female children. Even in families where there is adequate food, girls are given a smaller amount. Mothers and girls eat last, when at times even an adequate amount of food is not available, and so therefore they sometimes do not eat at all. Families do this in order to delay girls' physical development so that parents can gain time to look for a groom and collect enough resources for dowry. Besides having a lower allocation of food within the family, families spend less on girls' healthcare. Parents see boys as old age insurance and are thus boys are well fed and protected from illness. Finally, adolescent girls have fewer opportunities for recreation, healthy physical exercise, and even exposure to fresh air.

At times girls in India are subject to extreme health-care actions. Often, Indian families give girls less than adequate healthcare when they do become sick, if they recieve healthcare at all. A report from Narangwal, Punjab, states that 48% of girls versus 64% of boys receive health care in the first 24 hours of a terminal disease, Reports from other parts of India confirm these statistics. In Punjab, 55% of children who die between 7-36 months of age are girls from underprivileged communities. Of those, 69% suffered from malnutrition. Because parents in Indian society do not value female children, their response to nutrition and health care for third or fourth daughters is often to let them die.

Since independence there has been an increase in the number and type of welfare services. Many programs target specific sections of the population, such as Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, nomadic populations, women, children, and the disabled. The resources for such services, however, are inadequate, and a large proportion of the budgets for specific programs goes toward maintaining the service staff and their generally meager facilities.