Healthcare services to be extended to Naxal-hit areas

With an aim of extending healthcare services to Naxal-affected areas, the Centre has decided to spruce up health infrastructure in such places under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).
Initiating steps in this direction, a team of top Health Ministry officials are in Odisha to review the healthcare facilities in the state, with particular focus on Naxal-hit districts of Koraput, Bolangir and Kalahandi (KBK).
These fall under the category of high priority districts in terms of healthcare infrastructure.
Led by Union Health Secretary Keshav Desiraju, the team will visit the KBK districts to strategise healthcare delivery interventions to help improve health indicators in the coastal state.

They will also review the functioning of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) there when they hold meetings with Chief Medical Officers, district magistrates, mission directors and officials of the State Health Department during their visit to the state.
According to Health Ministry data, the overall health index of all the Naxal-affected areas is very poor and the states have been directed to spend more money in these areas to improve health infrastructure.
Odisha's Bolangir district has the highest neo-natal mortality rate (NNMR) in the country with 72 infants per 1,000 live births dying within 29 days of their birth.

Odisha's Kandhamal district also has the highest under-5 mortality rate (U5MR) in the country, with 142 children per 1,000 live births dying below the age of five years in 2011.