Rural health mission showing results: PM

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Thursday the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) had started showing good results and had helped bring down both maternal and infant mortality rates.

"We had launched the National Rural Health Mission in 2005. (It) has started showing good results. Both maternal and infant mortality rates have come down sharply," he said in his Independence Day speech.

He said: "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."

The NRHM is the government's flagship programme for improving healthcare delivery across rural India.

"We have implemented the health mission in urban areas also. This will result in both expansion and improvement of health services in such areas," the prime minister said.

He said the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (National Health Insurance Scheme), which provides free in-patient treatment in hospitals to "our poor brothers and sisters", now covers about 3.5 crore families.