Health information is very much required by the planners, policy makers, health decision-makers, and health managers to better understand disease processes, health care issues, for health program prioritization, public health research and to prevent or treat health problems. This health information is not used only by the Government. It is used by the health care providers, community health workers, and non-governmental agencies.
The health information exists at various levels and there is a wide variety of data available from different sources mainly government (both at the central and state level through routine data collection), non-government organisations (NGO), scientific journals and evaluation studies. There is a challenge faced by the helth managers/decision managers in accessing to information in terms of timeliness and in the form they need. In order to address this issue, Foundation for Research in Health Systems, India started publishing Health Monitors (HM) since 1993. HM is a compilation of districts and states health data from various sources including Census, SAmple Surveys, research studies and government publications.