Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Jan 11: Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Ghulam Nabi Azad today said that BRICS platform will contribute in the global effort towards strengthening health systems particularly in the public sector through specific actionable plans of collaboration.
Addressing the BRICS Health Ministers’ meeting, Mr Azad said, “despite diverse geographical and climatic backgrounds, we share the same challenges in the domain of public health. Our joining hands will give a collective expression to global public health aspirations and this platform will lead to better health not only for our people but also for the world at large”.
“Although we have been able to make significant progress in providing better health facilities to our people, we recognize that much more still needs to be done”, Mr Azad said, adding “India with its size, population, geo-climatic and socio-economic diversities presents a great public health challenge. We have an urban India and a huge rural India with ever increasing demands for provision of healthcare services”.
“In India, health is a State subject, not a Federal subject. Yet the Federal Government stepped in to help the State Governments to meet the demands of healthcare services in the remotest corners by launching the National Rural Health Mission in 2005-06. Since the launch of the Mission, additional funds to the tune of over 13 billion USD have been provided to 35 States and Union Territories of the country. In terms of Health Infrastructure, over 43,500 new construction and up-gradation works of health facilities have been taken up and nearly 70,000 additional beds have been added in Government health institutions for provision of essential and emergency services”.
The referral transport and out-reach services have been improved through over 18,000 Mobile Medical Units and Ambulances. A Mother and Child Tracking System (MCTS) has been put in place to make sure that we are able to reach out to every pregnant woman and child, the Health and Family Welfare Minister said, adding “we have earned international accolades for our efforts at containing Polio. On January 13, 2013, India will complete two years without a single case of wild polio-virus. There have been significant falls in Maternal Mortality Rate, Infant Mortality Rate and Total Fertility Rate which could be attributed to the major success we had in promoting institutional births with the launch of an innovative scheme of providing cash assistance to pregnant women delivering in public health facilities”.
Mr Azad said the successful implementation of the HIV/AIDS programme by India has earned global appreciation. The new evidence, from the latest round of HIV estimations, corroborates the fact that there is consistent decline in HIV prevalence, new infections as well as deaths due to AIDS-related causes in India.
“Keeping in view the rapidly increasing burden of NCDs across the globe, we took early steps by launching mass screening for early detection of Non Communicable Diseases like Diabetes, Hypertension and Cancer. With a substantial increase in the budget outlay for health, we propose to take several new initiatives to consolidate our gains and to fill up the gaps in critical areas of health-care, research, human resources and infrastructure, over the next 5 years”, he further said.
The meeting was also addressed by Chen Zhu, Minister of Health, People’s Republic of China, Dr Pakishe Aaron Motsoaledi, Minister of Health, South Africa, Sergey Velmyaykin, Deputy Minister of Health, Russia, R S Padilha, Minister of Health, Brazil, Michael Sidibe, Executive Director, UNAIDS and Dr S Plianbangchang, Regional Director, WHO-SEARO.
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