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Recognizing the importance of Health in the process of economic and social development and improving the quality of life of our citizens, the Government of India has resolved to launch the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) to carry out necessary architectural correction in the basic health care delivery system.
The mission adopts a synergistic approach by relating Health to determinants of good health viz, of nutrition, sanitation, hygiene and safe drinking water. It also aims at mainstreaming the Indian systems of medicine to facilitate health care. The Plan of Action includes increasing public expenditure on health, reducing regional imbalance in health infrastructure, pooling resources, integration of organizational structures, optimization of health manpower, decentralization and district management of health programmes, community participation and ownership of assets, induction of management and financial personnel into district health system, and operationalising Community Health Centres into functional hospital meeting Indian Public Health Standards in each Block of the Country.
The Goal of the Mission is to improve the availability of and access to quality health care by people, especially for those residing in rural areas, the poor, women and children.
The National Rural Health Mission seeks to provide effective health care to the rural population, especially the disadvantaged groups including women and children, by improving access, enabling community ownership and demand for services, strengthening public health systems for efficient service delivery, enhancing equity and accountability and promoting decentralization.
Coverage of the National Rural Health Mission
The NRHM covers the entire country, with special focus on 18 states where the challenge of strengthening poor public health systems and thereby improving key health indicators is the greatest. These are Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Arunchal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura.
The NRHM is basically a strategy for integrating ongoing vertical programmes of Health & Family Welfare, and addressing issues related to the determinants of Health, like Sanitation, Nutrition and Safe Drinking Water. The National Rural Health Mission seeks to adopt a sector wide approach and aims at systemic reforms to enable efficiency in health service delivery. NRHM subsumes key national programmes, namely, the Reproductive and Child Health II project (RCH II) the National Disease Control Programmes (NDCP)...