Extending health-service access to rural areas in the National Population Policy answers which challenge?

Correct answer: Service inequality and lack of health facilities

The direct answer is C. Rural communities may be far from hospitals, clinics, trained health workers, medicines, counselling, or emergency care. If services are concentrated in towns, people in villages may receive care later or less often than urban residents. Extending health services to rural areas addresses this unequal access and helps make population policy more inclusive. A is wrong because mountain building is a physical-geography process and is not solved by health services. B is wrong because sea trade is unrelated to access to medical care. D is wrong because a shortage of maps is not the central population-health challenge described here. The reasoning is simple: unequal location of facilities creates unequal access; bringing reliable services closer reduces that inequality. A safe memory cue is “rural access means health justice,” though access must also include affordability and quality.