Modi OKs AYUSH Mission
JIP Exclusive
It is now clear (say all and sundry in Union Health Ministry in Nirman Bhavan, New Delhi) that because of rampant defalcations, corruptions, dereliction of durties, high handedness to attain parvenu status flagrantly, passing buck here-n-there, much tom-tomed, grandiloquent Ayush was a clear failure and a non-provider, mish-mash, spoilt during Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Union Health Ministership. To undo that, albeit without any ado, positively-behaving Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gave its approval for (re)launching of Ayush under the National AYUSH Mission (NAM) with its core and flexible components intact as before.
The proposed Mission will address the huge, gaping, avoidable yet persistent gaps in health services through supporting the efforts of State/UT Governments for providing AYUSH health services/education in the country, particularly in vulnerable and far-flung areas. Under NAM special focus will be given for specific needs of such areas and for allocation of higher resources in their Annual Plans. The Mission will help in the improvement of AYUSH education through enhancement in the number of upgraded educational institutions; better access to AYUSH services through increase in number of AYUSH hospitals and dispensaries, availability of drugs and manpower; providing sustained availability of quality raw material for AYUSH systems of medicine; and improving availability of quality Ayurvedic, Siddha, Unani and Homeopathy (ASUSH) drugs through increase in number of pharmacies, drug laboratories and improved enforcement mechanism of ASUSH drugs.
Rs 553 Crores where ? : According to then Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, a total of Rs 553.00 crores was officially given to the States / UTs for mainstreaming of AYUSH under National Rural Health Mission during 2009-13. This resulted in the establishment of new AYUSH facilities in 803 Primary Health Centres, 113 Community Health Centres, 24 District Hospitals and up-gradation of 379 exclusive AYUSH hospitals and 415 Dispensaries in the country. Where are they ? Any sign of them ? According to present officers of the Union Health Ministry, there’s just no sign of them barring a few of them. On what was it spent ? Only Ghulam Nabi Azad, has the answer.
According to Azad, mainstreaming of AYUSH has been one of the important strategies envisaged under the NRHM. Accordingly, the Department of AYUSH supported the setting up of six 50 bedded Integrated AYUSH Hospitals in Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand and five 10 bedded Integrated AYUSH hospitals in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Sikkim. Altogether 11,478 AYUSH doctors and 4,894 AYUSH para-medics have been appointed on contract basis at Primary Health Centres and Community Health Centres under NRHM across the country. It has also implemented various schemes in the eleventh plan for development of all the four core areas of education, research, drug development and healthcare delivery. Homoeopathy has also been benefitted tremendously from these schemes, especially the Schemes on Centre of Excellence, Public Health Initiative and Extra mural research. There is peaceful co-existence of Allopathy with Ayurveda and Siddha in the country now. All these medical systems are listed to have been utilized in the national healthcare delivery system, each to its potential and availability in different parts of the country. Homoeopathy is now well assimilated into the ethos of Indian heritage and is widely accepted by the public for many of their healthcare requirements.
According to Azad figures, since the launch of the National Rural Health Mission in 2005, substantial progress has been achieved in the health sector. Over 8 lakh 60 thousand Community Health Workers called ASHAs have been appointed in villages to facilitate interface between the communities and health system. Under Janani Surakhsa Yojana (JSY), complemented by Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram (JSSK), institutional deliveries have seen a quantum jump, leading to unprecedented increase in the institutional deliveries from 7 lakhs in 2005-06 to nearly One Crore and Ten lakhs in the past two years. To cater to the increased demand, more than 25,000 additional beds have been sanctioned across 415 health facilities in 11 States. There has been tremendous improvement in the referral transport and out-reach services through over 18,000 Mobile Medical Units and Ambulances. A name, address and telephone based Mother and Child Tracking System (MCTS) has been put in place to reach out to every pregnant woman for proper care during pregnancy and to every child for proper vaccination. Data of more than 4.3 crore women and 3.5 crore children has been captured as of 7the June, 2013. A latest initiative is the “Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram”, which was launched on 6th February, 2013 from a tribal block of Thane District in Maharashtra. This national programme is for Universal Screening of Children for Disorders, Diseases, Deficiencies and Disabilities from birth up to 18 years and will cover about 27 crore children across the country, including 17 crore school going children. That much about the data, statistics. What about the facts, Where, when, how are the patients been treated…?
For More Loot : India’s public spending on health is lowest in world – Ghulam Nabi Azad : Noting that India’s public spending on health is lowest in the world, Ghulam Nabi Azad (to observers) lamented that allocation to National Health Mission in first two years of 12th Plan is only 18 per cent of promised outlay and called for augmenting resources.
The then Minister also said that Rs 5,500 crore was provided by states and the Centre under the new initiative of the Ministry to provide free essential medicines to all patients visiting public health facilities.
He said (then) 28 states and UTs have articulated the policy and were provided about Rs 3,500 crores for free drugs and NRHM supplemented the states’ efforts with about Rs 2,000 crores.
Azad cleared proposals for revision/new incentives related to Multi Drug Resistant TB and those related to Drug Sensitive TB in tribal and difficult areas and TB-HIV co-infected patients.
Background:
India possess an unmatched heritage represented by its ancient systems of medicine like ASU&H which are a treasure house of knowledge for preventive and promotive healthcare. The positive features of the Indian systems of medicine namely their diversity and flexibility; accessibility; affordability, a broad acceptance by a large section of the general public; comparatively lesser cost and growing economic value, have great potential to make them providers of healthcare that the large sections of our people need.
The government today approved launching of National Ayush Mission (NAM) to address gaps in health services in vulnerable and far-flung areas of the country.
The decision to launch the mission was taken in a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Through the Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (Ayush) mission, the Centre seeks to address gaps in health services by supporting the efforts of state governments for providing Ayush health services and education in the country, particularly in vulnerable and remote areas.
“Under NAM, special focus will be given on specific needs of such areas and for allocation of higher resources in their Annual Plans. The Mission will help improve Ayush education through enhancement in the number of upgraded educational institutions and provide better access to Ayush services through increase in number of Ayush hospitals and dispensaries,” an official statement said.
The mission will also help provide sustained availability of quality raw material for Ayush systems of medicine and improve availability of quality drugs through increase in number of pharmacies and drug laboratories.