The
story of India in the 21st century has been one of extraordinary growth and
innovation.
We
have revolutionised the data and information industry , and we produce medicine
cheaper
than
anywhere in the world. We eliminated polio under incredibly challenging
circumstances.
But
India has not even come close to reaching her full potential, because we have
only
leveraged
half of our resources into that effort. We've yet to unlock much of the
potential of
the
other half: India's women.
Only
when India's women are on an equal footing with India's men will we be the
nation we
want
to become. The government has already taken significant steps to provide health
and
development
to women.
In
India, though maternal and infant mortality have dropped precipitously in
recent years, 200
women
still die every day in child birth. Part of the problem is that not all
pregnant women
have
easy access to the best ante-natal care.The Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva
Abhiyan,
which
was launched late last year, guarante es every woman in her second or third
trimester
free
ante-natal care by private doctors at designated hospitals all over the country
on the 9th
of
every month.
More
than 50 lakh women have been given quality ante-natal checkups under this
scheme.More
than 56 lakh pregnant women have been immunised under Mission
Indradhanush
and the MAA campaign, through awareness and counselling, continues to
promote
better health and nutrition to mothers and children at community level. Family
planning
is one of the most critical and long standing health programmes in India. Here
too
India
has made impressive progress, with the fertility rate dropping from 2.7 to 2.1
over the
last
decade. But even today 31 million married women are not using any contraception
at all;
about
two thirds of the rest are using sterilisation, which is effective but doesn't
help women
delay
their first pregnancy or space their later children at healthy intervals.
As a
result, too many women are either having more children than they want, having
children
sooner
than they want, or not leaving enough time between children for their bodies to
recover
fully from pregnancy . Realising this massive gap, the government has
introduced
three
new contraceptive methods into the health system, including injectables and a
once-aweek
pill,
so that more and more women will be able to plan their families.
Among
those women who do get pregnant, almost half are between the ages of 15 and 25,
so
we're
also starting an intense awareness campaign aimed at this age group to make
sure that
they
know the contraceptive options and feel empowered to exercise them. A
complementary
campaign
will target men, since contraception isn't always a choice a woman can make on
her
own. The better men understand family planning, the more supportive they're
likely to be
when
it comes to planning their families together with their wives.
The
need for better contraception and ante-natal care is not spread evenly around
the country
. A
quarter of India's mothers who live in the poorest areas are twice as likely to
see their
babies
die than the rest. That is why we launched Mission Parivar Vikas on World
Population
Day
on Tuesday , doubling down our efforts in 145 districts in 7 states districts
Responsible
for half of the country's infant deaths for intensive improvement in family
planning and ante-natal care services.
As
part of this Mission we want to ensure that supplies are available at all
facilities at all
times
for which we are developing a robust Family Planning Logistics Management
Information
System. This is a web and mobile based decision-making tool to monitor and
manage
the flow of contraceptive supplies to reduce inventory fluctuations and improve
the
programme's effectiveness at all public health facilities.
We
estimate that in 2017 nearly 137 million women in India are using modern method
of
contraception.
As a result of this usage, 39 million unintended pregnancies will be prevented;
nearly
12 million unsafe abortions, 16 million total births and 43,000 maternal deaths
will be
averted.
We firmly believe that family planning is critical for our nation's economic
development,
and is a big first step towards growth, equality and sustainable development
that
opens the door to opportunity and prosperity for women and families.
Source: The Times of India
No comments:
Post a Comment