`People shouldn’t feel they’re being used by the Government’

Implementation is always a challenge and we plan to launch an intensiveeducation and awareness campaign on July 22, when the National PopulationCommission set up to monitor and coordinate population programmes on May11, the day our population turned one billion headed by Prime MinisterAtal Behari Vajpayee will meet for the first time. The Prime Minister willalso announce an action plan to implement the population policy on thatday.

We have already had a preliminary round of discussions with NGOs and thesecretaries of each state to make it possible for reproductive healthinformation to reach each and every household. To make this possible, we’llmake use of everything, from the mass media to melas to gram haats andbazaars.

Unlike the earlier spate of vasectomies, which made people very suspiciousof family-welfare programmes, the new policy is committed to voluntary andinformed choice for availing of reproductive health services. We plan tointegrate health and family welfare issues. For example, we will give peopleinformation on reproductive health and AIDS while treating people for STDs.People should feel they are getting something from the Government, and notjust being used by the Government for its own diabolical purposes.

The infrastructure is largely in place, but it is true that it is notworking. We have to activate it. There is one primary health centre fornearly each block in the country, with a staff of 15-16 people. Each catersto roughly 30,000 people. Then there is a district hospital for everytwo-three primary health centres, and another 1.37 lakh district hospitalsspread across the country. It is another matter that because of absenteeismand lack of facilities and medicine, these facilities are as good as notbeing there.

The Health Ministry is going to ensure that basic medicines like those forfever and malaria are available at each centre. With good manufacturingpractices also being enforced soon, we will also make use of aurvedic, unaniand homeopathic medicines. Plans are also on to integrate alternativesystems of medicine practitioners into the mainstream and make use of theirexpertise.

Younger couples will be targeted and made aware of the temporary methods ofcontraception. Pregnant women will also be given iron and folic acid tabletsto ensure their health and the health of their new-born. If people areconvinced their children will survive their childhood, they’ll have fewerchildren.

Making sure the mother is healthy is the best way of ensuring a child’shealth. Besides training dais on safe delivery practices, we plan toencourage people to deliver in the hospital, and not at home.

Studies have shown that Vitamin A boosts immunity, so we are consideringmaking it part of the immunisation programme. This will bring down cases ofrespiratory infections and diarrhoea drastically.

Another step we are introducing is making Hepatitis-B vaccine a part of theimmunisation programme. It won’t be as expensive as was formerly believed,for we already have tenders to make the vaccine for less than Rs 30, withsyringes thrown in. Once things started getting manufactured here, theprices naturally plummet.

The National AIDS Control Organisation and the Department of Family Welfaretreated many people for STDS in health camps in a nationwide exercise lastmonth. They were also given information on AIDS and contraception.AIDS is amajor problem. I have seen people dying of secondary infections withinmonths of testing positive for HIV, unlike in the West, where people liveproductively for years. The resistance of most people in India is so lowthat they cannot fight HIV for long. Treatment is expensive, so preventionis the most realistic option.

Besides publicity, more testing centres will be set up and condoms will bedistributed at petrol pumps and public distribution system (PDS). AIDSawareness information will also be made easily available, especially amongthe high-risk groups like truckers and sex workers.

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