It is only partnership that will get us to our goal : PM Modi

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : ” It is only partnerships that will get us to our goals. Partnerships between citizens, Partnerships between communities, Partnerships between countries. The Sustainable Development agenda is a reflection of this, ” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he inaugurated the Partners’ Forum, 2018, here on December 12, 2018. The Prime Minister also released the coffee table book ‘Proven Paths’,  a compendium of 36 best practices in maternal, child and adolescent health, at the inaugural ceremony.

J P Nadda, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister, Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal Upendra Yadav, Gabriela Cuevas Barron, President Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU), Kim Simplis Barrow, First Lady of Belize, Ashwini Kumar Choubey and  Anupriya Patel, Ministers of State for Health & Family Welfare, Preeti Sudan, Secretary (Health & Family Welfare) and Acting Board Chair, along with 23 Ministers from 21 countries, representatives from various organizations and participants from 85 countries across the globe were also present at the function.

The Prime Minister said that the Partnership for Maternal, New-born, and Child Health, is a unique and effective platform. “We are not only making a case for better health. We are also making an argument for faster growth,” he added. He said that India was one of the first countries to advocate focused attention on adolescence and implement an extensive health promotion and prevention programme for adolescents. Our effort ensured that they get their due recognition in the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health adopted in 2015, the PM mentioned.

Appreciating the Immunization Programme of the country, the Prime Minister said that the programme is close to his heart and he is pleased that it’s being featured as a success story at this forum. “Under Mission Indradhanush, we reached 32.8 million children and 8.4 million pregnant women over the last three years. We have also increased the number of vaccines under the universal immunisation programme from 7 to 12. Our vaccines now cover life threatening diseases like- Pneumonia and Diarrhoea,” he elaborated.

The Prime Minister stated that the government has launched the Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan to provide best possible care to mothers during pregnancy. “We called upon the private sector doctors to pledge one day of service per month to this campaign. Under this campaign, 16 million Ante-Natal care check-ups have been performed,” he added. The Prime Minister further stated that the country has 25 million newborns.

“Our robust facility based newborn care system, which provides care to more than 1 million newborn babies through 794 Special Newborn Care Units, has served as a successful model. As a result of our interventions, 840 additional lives of children under five are being saved each day in India compared to four years back,” the PM said.

Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Minister Nadda said that under the dynamic leadership of the Prime Minister our efforts are bearing fruits. “We have witnessed an accelerated pace of reduction in maternal and child mortality that is much faster than the global average rate of decline and are poised to attain the related SDG targets much before the deadline,” he stated

Reiterating the commitment of the Government, Nadda said that the Government is coming closer to realising the dream of Universal Health Coverage. “The Ayushman Bharat Yojana, which epitomises political commitment, vision and guidance from the Prime Minister is already being hailed globally as a paradigm shift in healthcare delivery,” he added.

The opening ceremony witnessed an enthralling curtain raiser using projection mapping to display larger than life pre-recorded graphics of Indian women welcoming delegates and a lively animation film of the Partners Forum logo, video with voices of women from across the globe and collage of photographs of women, children and adolescents from various continents of the world. The anthem of the Partners’ Forum was performed by Ms Abelone, baby Zoey, and MsTarana. The lyrics of this anthem were crowd-sourced from youth participants from around the world including India.