`The careful and responsible management of the well-being of the population is the very essence of good government.' The World Health Report, 2000. Over the years, Indians have silently witnessed the near-total degeneration of the country's basic health-care services. The slow but certain breakdown of the primary health-care sector has fuelled the unregulated growth of private nursing homes, clinics and trendy health resorts that dish out packaged health care in the name of holistic healing, making health care the prerogative of a fortunate few. In No Place to Go, Subhadra Menon provides a comprehensive account of the changes that have taken place in the country's health sector since Independence. She writes about the unwillingness of doctors to practise in small towns and villages, which has forced people to seek help from unrecognized medical practitioners. She also reveals, by means of detailed case studies, how several well-meaning policies of the government have fallen flat because of the inefficiency of the officials who are meant to implement them, and how cheap, spurious drugs flooding the market have resulted in the tragic loss of many lives. Through it all, however, Menon lauds the islands of positive effort successful community-level programmes and government projects, as well as inspired individuals working to deliver effective health-care services which have proved beyond doubt that people's participation and strengthened linkages between the government and the private sector will one day result in a healthier India.