Cabinet to take up Rs 22,000-cr urban health mission project

A proposal to set up the Rs 22,000 crore National Urban Health Mission, a dedicated public health delivery system to address medicare challenges in town and cities with focus on slum dwellers, will be taken up by the Union Cabinet at its meeting here on Thursday. The NUHM will come under the overarching body of National Health Mission which will take care of both rural and urban health needs of the people in the country. The Planning Commission has already approved National Health Mission under the 12th Plan. It will be on the lines of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) launched in 2005 to address the health challenges of rural India and is expected to cover cities and towns with over 50,000 people which would come to around 779 cities including Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmadabad. The proposal for setting up the NUHM has already been cleared by the government's Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC). NUHM seeks to improve the health status particularly of slum dwellers and other disadvantaged sections by ensuring equitable access to quality health care through a revamped public health system. The Mission would help improve the health indicators of urban poor. The National Family Health Survey-3 revealed that under-five mortality rate was 73 for every 1,000 live births among the urban poor as against 48 among other city residents. NUHM seeks to improve the health status particularly of slum dwellers and other disadvantaged sections by ensuring equitable access to quality health care through a revamped public health system.