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India to launch a revamped Reproductive and Child Health programme
Apr 8, 2005, 03:35, Reviewed by: Dr.
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Dr. Ramadoss also announced the launch of National Rural Health Mission next week. The mission aims to provide effective healthcare to the entire rural population with special focus on 18 states having poor health indicators.
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By PIB, India,
India is in the process of launching a revamped reproductive and child health programme with greater focus on promoting institutional deliveries - skilled attendance at birth and emergency obstetrics care with special attention to families below poverty line. Announcing this at the global launch of the World Health Report-2005 here along with the Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr. Lee Jong-Wook, the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss also drew the attention of the audience to the concerted efforts of the Government to eradicate polio and the Integrated Management of Neonatal Childhood Illnesses.
Dr. Ramadoss also announced the launch of National Rural Health Mission next week. The mission aims to provide effective healthcare to the entire rural population with special focus on 18 states having poor health indicators. He said that the mission document for this new mission had been evolved under �the guidance and vision provided by the Hon�ble Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh and the Chairperson, National Advisory Council, Smt. Sonia Gandhi�. He said that the UPA Government had made a commitment to increase public health spending to two to three per cent over the next five years. In keeping with the National Common Minimum Programme, he said, the RCH-II and NRHM will usher in an efficient and effective healthcare system.
Speaking before launching the Global Health Report on the theme �Make Every Mother and Child Count�, the Director General of WHO, Dr. Lee said that �more than six million children can be saved if they had simple healthcare such as oral rehydration, immunization and neonatal and post-natal care� and �thousands of women could be saved if they had access to skilled care�. Underlining the fact that �health of our mothers is the foundation of our society�, he said that the WHO and its partners were not attempting to do the impossible but to do that which was possible. �Millennium Development Goals for health are attainable�, he said and �our message today is one of hope�, he added.
The Executive Director of UNICEF, Ms. Carol Bellamy reminded all present of �the importance of working together and understanding the continuum of care�. She said that the Global Health Report was important in making available data on what had been done and what needed to be done and how this could be done. �There have been gains but women are dying and dying needlessly� she added. �These deaths can and must be prevented�.
The World Health Report-2005 based on the slogan �Make every mother and child count� gives the global picture of women and child health. Pregnancy and childbirth and their consequences are still the leading causes of death, disease and disability among women of reproductive age in developing countries.
Over 300 million women in the developing world suffer from short-term or long-term illnesses brought about by pregnancy and childbirth; 529,000 die each year.
The WHO has also come out with a report on improving maternal, new born and child health in the south-east Asian region. In India, every year 30 million women experience pregnancy and 27 million have live births. Of these, an estimated 136,000 maternal deaths and one million newborn deaths occur each year.
As per a case study given by WHO in Tamilnadu, the MMR is lower than the national figure at 115 per 100,000 live births as against the national average of 407 per 100,000 live birth. Tamilnadu has been able to achieve a lower MMR mainly through increased skilled care at birth � increased number of safe births by increasing the number of skilled attendants and along with this improved provision of emergency obstetrics care. 
- Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India
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