National Rural Health Mission showing good results: PM

A confident Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Thursday said the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) has started showing good results, and added that it has helped bring down both maternal and infant mortality rates.

Delivering his 10th Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the historic 17th-century built Red Fort; Dr. Singh said the government had launched the National Rural Health Mission in 2005.

"The Mission has started showing good results. Both Maternal Maternity and Infant Mortality rates have come down sharply. A much larger proportion of children is now born in hospitals. There has also been a large increase in the proportion of children being inoculated," he added.

The National Rural Health Mission is a health program for improving health care delivery across rural India.

The mission, initially mooted for seven years (2005-2012), is run by the Ministry of Health. The scheme proposes a number of new mechanisms for healthcare delivery including training local residents as Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) and the Janani Surakshay Yojana (motherhood protection program). It also aims at improving hygiene and sanitation infrastructure.

Dr. Singh said no case of polio has been detected in the country in the last two years.

"We have been able to eradicate a disease which used to cause disability to lakhs of people," he added.

Dr. Singh further said the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, which provides free in-patient treatment in hospitals to our poor brothers and sisters, now covers about 3.5 crore families.

"We have implemented the Health Mission in urban areas also. This will result in both expansion and improvement of health services in such areas," he added.

The Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana is a government-run health insurance scheme for the Indian poor. It provides for cashless insurance for hospitalisation in public as well private hospitals. The scheme started enrolling on April 1, 2008 and has been implemented in 25 states of India.