The ministry of health and family welfare will start an e-healthcare service that will strengthen health awareness in rural India, an official said.

"The ministry of health and family welfare has already prepared the white paper for the e-healthcare service. This will raise awareness among the people in the country, who remain completely deprived of health services initiated by the government," Mr Jagdish Prasad, director general, health services, ministry of health and family welfare said.

The e-healthcare system will be a web portal which will help the government enlighten people about all the health-related programs and various other schemes that enable them to get free medical treatments.

Speaking about the importance of health awareness, he said, "The situation today is such that, due to a lack of health awareness in the rural parts of the country, 70 percent of rural women do not know the essentials of breast feeding, due to which their children suffer from several health issues and hardly get any medical care."

He also mentioned the government's plan to improve the country's health sector, "To improve healthcare in the coming years, the Indian government will convert district hospitals into medical colleges and upgrade medical colleges into better health institutions."