The Village Coordination Committee acts as nodal agency which signs a 'Social Franchise agreement'. The agreement involves two parties, viz. Village Coordination Committee and Department of Community Medicine, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Sewagram, entering into a contractual obligation to produce a "social product" of a particular kind and quality. Working with target communities, program staff scales up the capacities of villagers, who then work with MGIMS to develop and manage health services. It is hoped that this process will eventually leads to community "ownership" of healthcare activities and infrastructure. The VCC with the communities determine health issues and priorities and develop village health plans through participatory processes.

At present, the 'National Rural Health Mission' is being implemented with the aims to bridge gaps in rural healthcare through increased community ownership, decentralization of the programs to the district level, inter-sectoral coordination & appointment of a village level health functionary- ASHA and improved primary health care. Community Led Initiatives for Child Survival, has been developed in keeping with India's policy framework for health. The proposed social franchise model tests the central role that can be played by village institutions in the delivery of health care thus addressing issues of decentralisation & sustainability (including financial) in health care service delivery.