The Pilot Health Project,initiated by the Government of India to study rural health conditions, recommended the establishment of training centres for training peripheral-level health personnel. Based on this recommendation, the Department of Rural Health and Sanitation was established in 1961 in Gandhigram Rural Institute as one of the three centres established in the country during that time. The main emphasis in the curriculum is on field training, with a primary focus on rural health and sanitation.

The Department has been offering a PG Diploma in Sanitary Inspector Programme, which caters to the manpower needs of the local panchayats, municipalities, corporations and the Indian Railways in the fields of Health Inspectors and Food Inspectors. As of now, all the students who completed the programme are working in Tamil Nadu.