The Government has formulated several schemes for providing health services to citizens specially those who are below the poverty line. These include programmes for providing Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) Services, control of communicable and non-communicable diseases, providing curative as well as preventive/promotive care through a chain of primary, secondary and tertiary care health institutions.
Government has also launched the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) throughout the country with special focus on 18 states which have relatively poor health indicators/infrastructure. {These include 8 Empowered Action Group States (Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarth, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Orissa and Rajasthan), 8 NE States, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir}.The main aim of NRHM is to provide accessible, affordable, accountable, effective and reliable primary health care facilities, especially, to the poor and vulnerable sections of the population.
The NRHM envisages improvements in range and quality of hospital care, decentralization of programme to district level to improve intra and inter-sectoral convergence and effective utilization of resources. The NRHM further aims to provide overarching umbrella to the existing National programmes of Health & Family Welfare including RCH-II, Malaria, Blindness, Iodine deficiency, Filaria, Kala Azar, T.B., Leprosy and Integrated Disease Surveillance. Further, it addresses the issue of health in a sector-wide manner addressing sanitation and hygiene, nutrition and safe drinking water as basic determinants of good health. The initiatives under NRHM are benefiting the weaker sections including the poorer and minority community.
The Government has finalized a detailed framework for implementation of NRHM, which provides the road map for operationalisation of various strategies. While the improved health services are envisaged to be available to all the citizens, special provisions are made for the underprivileged persons and persons living in underserved areas.
This information was given by the Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss in a reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.
Source-PIB
SRM/N
