Govt to declare current fiscal as year of ‘mother and child’

The campaign will focus only on providing primary health of mother and child.

Uttar Pradesh government has decided to declare 2015-16 as year of Mother and Child focussing on primary health.

Following initiative of Kannauj MP Dimple Yadav, Uttar Pradesh government has decided to declare 2015-16 as year of Mother and Child focussing on primary health. Earlier, state government had launched State Nutrition Mission on November 1 following Dimple’s initiative.

The official launching is likely to be done on April 16 during a function in presence of the Kannauj MP. “It was Dimple ji’s initiative and CM too is concerned about the health of mother and children, hence UP is launching it as an year,” a senior officer said.

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According to the Annual Health Survey (AHS), during 2012-13, the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in the state was 258 per 1,00,000 live births. The infant mortality rate (IMR) was 50 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2013 while institutional deliveries stood at 57 percent in 2012-13.

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The year long campaign aims to bend the curve of IMR, reduce MMR further with a significant increase in the percentage of institutional deliveries. The major activities include strengthening Village Health and Nutrition Days (VHND) in a way that it acts as the primary delivery point of almost all Reproductive Maternal, Newborn Child Health and Adolescent (RMNCHA) related services. It would ensure delivery of services like ante natal care, immunisation, distribution of iron supplement to women, nutrition supplement to children and counselling to eligible couples and pregnant women. The campaign will also ensure the coordination among all concerned departments like women and child health, integrated child development scheme (ICDS), family planning and it would also connect to programmes like Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK), Bal Swasthya Poshan Maah (BSPM), and Nutrition Mission.

The activities in the Year of Mother and Child will be handled by medical and health department with technical inputs from Vikas Gothalwal, team leader, RMNCHA. Unlike other government programmes, the activities for RMNCHA will be on top priority of the government. Besides the health department, respective district magistrates will also be made accountable for the activities in their districts.

Like in state nutrition mission every official including DM, commissioner and every district level officer has to adopt a village for eradicating malnutrition, these officials will be again adopting different villages for improving health services to the mother and child during the year.

The campaign will focus only on providing primary health of mother and child. For preparing the environment for the year long activities, UP government has already launched three-month intensive campaign called ‘Matra Evam Shishu Swasthya Sanrakshan Abhiyan’ from February 1 focusing on increasing coverage of routine immunisation, increasing institutional deliveries, increasing modern contraceptive prevalence rate and reducing malnutrition in children.

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