Govt. allocates Rs 553 crore for mainstreaming of AYUSH under NHRM

The Government has allocated 553 crore rupees to States and Union Territories for mainstreaming of AYUSH facility under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), during 2009 to 2013 period.

Addressing the inaugural function of Dr. Prasanta Banerji Homeopathic Research Foundation and launch of book on Banerji Protocols here yesterday, Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad said mainstreaming of AYUSH has been one of the important strategies envisaged under the NRHM. Accordingly, the Department of AYUSH supported the setting up of six 50 bedded Integrated AYUSH Hospitals in Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand and five 10 bedded Integrated AYUSH hospitals in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Sikkim.

"Altogether 11,478 AYUSH doctors and 4,894 AYUSH para-medics have been appointed on contract basis at Primary Health Centres and Community Health Centres under NRHM across the country. It has also implemented various schemes in the eleventh plan for development of all the four core areas of education, research, drug development and healthcare delivery. Homoeopathy has also been benefitted tremendously from these schemes, especially the Schemes on Centre of Excellence, Public Health Initiative and Extra mural research," he said.

"There is peaceful co-existence of Allopathy with Ayurveda and Siddha in the country now. All these medical systems are being utilized in the national healthcare delivery system, each to its potential and availability in different parts of the country. Homoeopathy is now well assimilated into the ethos of Indian heritage and is widely accepted by the public for many of their healthcare requirements," he added.

Azad said since the launch of the National Rural Health Mission in 2005, substantial progress has been achieved in the health sector.

"Over 8 lakh 60 thousand Community Health Workers called ASHAs have been appointed in villages to facilitate interface between the communities and health system. Under Janani Surakhsa Yojana (JSY), complemented by Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram (JSSK), institutional deliveries have seen a quantum jump, leading to unprecedented increase in the institutional deliveries from 7 lakhs in 2005-06 to nearly One Crore and Ten lakhs in the past two years," he added.

He further said that to cater to the increased demand, more than 25,000 additional beds have been sanctioned across 415 health facilities in 11 States. There has been tremendous improvement in the referral transport and out-reach services through over 18,000 Mobile Medical Units and Ambulances.

"A name, address and telephone based Mother and Child Tracking System (MCTS) has been put in place to reach out to every pregnant woman for proper care during pregnancy and to every child for proper vaccination. Data of more than 4.3 crore women and 3.5 crore children has been captured as of 7the June, 2013," he said.

"A latest initiative is the "Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram", which was launched on 6th February, 2013 from a tribal block of Thane District in Maharashtra. This national programme is for Universal Screening of Children for Disorders, Diseases, Deficiencies and Disabilities from birth up to 18 years and will cover about 27 crore children across the country, including 17 crore school going children," he added.