Ashwini Choubey, Anupriya Patel highlight decline in Maternal Mortality Ratio

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (HFW), in collaboration with Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD), on October 22, 2018, organised a day long national workshop for orientation of district officials of Aspirational Districts on Health and Nutrition here. The workshop was inaugurated by Ashwini Kumar Choubey and Anupriya Patel, Ministers of State for Health and Family Welfare. They also unveiled the Operational Guidelines on Aspirational Districts for Health and Nutrition and launched the e-Mitra Mobile Application.

Speaking at the event, Choubey stated that most of the developmental gains for the country will come from aspirational districts. Therefore, to achieve equity and accelerated improvements in human development indicators, the Government has focused its energy on these districts, he said.

Dr Vinod Paul, Member, NITI Ayog, Rakesh Srivastava, Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development, and  Preeti Sudan, Secretary (HFW) were also present at the inaugural function.

Choubey said stated that this is a first of its kind initiative of identifying 117 districts under the ‘Aspirational Districts’ Programme with an aim to quickly and effectively transforming them.  “The decline in Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) has been the highest since the last several decades which has declined by 37 points from 167/ lakh live births in 2011-13 to 130/ lakh live births in 2014-16 within a span of just three years. This accounts for an impressive 22% reduction in MMR since 2013,” he said.

Anupriya Patel said that the Government is committed to achieving the goals of the National Health Policy 2017 and  the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. “We have achieved impressive results in terms of accessibility and quality of services which resulted in reduced deaths of mothers, newborns and children, and improved health outcomes overall,” she said.

She said that in order to address the disparities, which are largely located in pockets within states, the Government has identified 117 Aspirational Districts. “It is expected that sustained and intensive efforts in programme implementation, monitoring and support will improve health and nutrition indicators and ensure that all people have equal access to high quality health care,” she added.

Dr V K Paul, Member, NITI Ayog, said that there is a profound responsibility as Aspirational Districts represent 20% of the geographical area and 20% of the population of the country. He stressed on the need of making more interventions in these districts and said that we require people’s movement so that we can reach out to the people and deliver required services at the ground. Preeti Sudan highlighted the importance of convergence at all the levels, according to a PIB release.

Altogether 117 districts have been identified for rapid transformation and inclusive growth. The Reproductive Maternal Newborn Child and Adolescent Health programme is an important pillar which will be strengthened under Aspirational Districts Programme.