Ministry of Health and Family Welfare – YEAR REVIEW

The Ministry is charged with health policy in India, which is also responsible for all government programs relating to family planning in India.

Departments

• Department of Health and Family Welfare
• Department of Health Research

Union Minister- Mansukh L. Mandaviya

Health Missions

• National Health Mission (NHM) – It was launched in 2005 to provide accessible, affordable and quality health care to the rural population, especially to the vulnerable groups.

Components

• Health System Strengthening
• Reproductive- Maternal- Neonatal - Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCH+A)
• Control of Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases

Ayushman Bharat- It is a flagship scheme recommended by National Health Policy 2017 to achieve the vision of Universal Health Coverage. It has two components

• Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs)
• Pradhan Mandri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM- JAY)

• Ayushman Arogya Mandir- The Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centre is renamed as Ayushman Arogya Mandir by upgrading the Sub Health Centres (SHCs) and rural and urban Primary Health Centres (PHCs), in both urban and rural areas.
• Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission- Launched in 2021, it is the largest pan-India Centrally Sponsored Scheme for strengthening healthcare infrastructure across the country.
• Swachh Swasth Sarvatra- It is a joint initiative along with Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation in 2016 to achieve better health outcomes through improved sanitation and increased awareness on healthy lifestyle.
• Kayakalp programme- It was launched in 2015 under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to maintain cleanliness in the public health sector by rewarding their performances.
• Rogi Kalyan Samiti- It is a patient welfare committee which is a registered society that acts as a group of trustees for the hospital to manage the affairs of the hospital.
• SaQushal: Safety and Quality, Self-Assessment tool for Health Facilities- Launched in 2022 to implement patient safety framework.

Maternal and Adolescent Health Care

Maternal Mortality Ratio of India has registered a decline from 130 per 1 lakh live birth in Sample Registration System (SRS) 2014-16 to 97 per 1 lakh live birth in SRS 2018-19.

• Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (SUMAN)- To provide quality healthcare at no cost and zero tolerance for denial of services for every woman and newborn visiting the public health facility to end all preventable maternal and newborn deaths.
• Maternal Perinatal Child Death Surveillance Response- It is a software launched in 2021 which measures and track all the maternal and perinatal deaths in real time.
• Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan- It was launched in 2016 which provides fixed day assured, comprehensive and quality antenatal care by gynaecology specialists to pregnant women on 9^th of every month at government health facilities.
•  LaQshya- It aims to improve the quality of care in Labour Room and Maternity Operation Theatres.
• Janani Suraksha Yojana- It provides Direct Benefit Transfer to pregnant women for institutional deliveries in order to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality.
• Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram- It entitles all pregnant women delivering in public health institutions to absolutely free and no expense delivery including C-section.
• Midwifery Initiative- It is a program aimed at creating a dedicated cadre of Nurse Practitioners in Midwifery (NPMs) in India.
• Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram- It was launched in 2014, with the key principles of adolescent participation and leadership, equity and inclusion, gender equity and strategic partnerships with other sectors and stakeholders.
• Ayushman Bharat School Health and Wellness Program- It is a school based health promotion activities that combines health education, health promotion, disease prevention and improved access in an integrated manner at the school level.

https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1843841#:~:text=Janani%20Shishu%20Suraksha%20Karyakaram%20(JSSK,other%20consumables%2C%20diet%20and%20blood.

Child Health Program

• Rasthriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram- It aims at early identification and intervention for children from birth to 18 years to cover 4 ‘D’s namely
  • Defects at birth
  • Deficiencies
  • Diseases
  • Developmental delays including disability

• SAANS- It was launched in 2019, which is a Social Awareness and Actions to Neutralize Pneumonia Successfully initiative to reduce deaths due to childhood pneumonia for rural and urban areas.
• IDCF campaign- The goal of Intensified Diarrhoea Control Fortnight campaign is to attain zero child death due to childhood diarrhoea.
• Anaemia Mukt Bharat- It was launched in 2018 in a 6x6x6 strategy to reduce anaemia prevalence among children, adolescents and women in reproductive age group.
• Mother’s Absolute Affection program- It attempts for the promotion of breastfeeding and provision of counselling services for supporting breastfeeding through health systems.

Immunization

Universal Immunization Program- It is one of the largest public health programs in the world launched in 1978, to provide vaccination at free of cost against 12 preventable diseases.

Mission Indradhanush- It is a targeted approach focused to reach all left-out and dropped out children in pockets of low immunization coverage.

• Mission Indradhanush 5.0- It is a catch-up vaccination campaign rolled out for children upto 5 years of age and pregnant women in 2023, who were left out of routine immunization with the special focus on Measles Rubella Elimination goal.
• Measles Rubella Elimination- India is committed to Measles Rubella Elimination by 2023.
• Pulse Polio Immunization- It was launched in 1995 with an objective of achieving 100% coverage in Oral polio Vaccine.

India was declared Polio free country in 2014.

• U-Win digital platform- Launched in 2023, it is a pilot project and an online case-based tracking and reporting system for the universal immunization program for children and pregnant women.

Family planning

As per NFHS-5(2019-21) India has achieved replacement fertility rate (Total Fertility Rate (TFR) =2.0)

• Mission Parivar Vikas- It was launched in 2016 for increasing access to contraceptives and family planning services in 146 high fertility districts with TFR of 3 and above in 7 high focus states.
• ASHA Schemes- Ensuring spacing at birth, home delivery of contraceptives and pregnancy testing kits would promote family planning.
• New Contraceptive Choices- New contraceptives such as Injectable contraceptive and Centchroman have been added to the existing basket of choices.
• Family Planning Logistic Management and Information System- A dedicated software to ensure smooth forecasting, procurement and distribution of family planning commodities across all the levels of health facilities.
• National Family Planning Indemnity Scheme- The clients are insured in the eventualities of death, complication and failure following sterilization.

Health Insurance Schemes

• Ayushman Bharat- Prandhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana-It is the largest publicly funded health assurance scheme in the world which provides health cover of Rs. 5 lakhs per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization.
  • Ayushman Bhava- It was launched to ensure the saturation of various healthcare schemes at the village level, ultimately reaching the last mile beneficiaries.
  • Ayushman App- It has been launched by National Health Authority, self-verification feature for beneficiaries has been enabled.
• Central Government Health Schemes- It is mainly for serving or retired Central Government employees and their families.
• Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi- It is a central sector scheme which provides one-time financial assistance to poor patients living below threshold poverty line and suffering from major identified life threatening diseases for medical treatment at government hospitals/institutes. It has 3 components namely
  • Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) - Financial assistance for treatment of life-threatening diseases providing maximum financial assistance up to Rs. 15 lakhs
  • Health Minister’s Cancer Patient  - Financial assistance for treatment of cancer at Regional Cancer Centres / Tertiary Care Cancer Centres and State Cancer Institutes
  • Financial assistance for poor patients suffering from rare diseases - Maximum financial assistance is Rs 20 lakhs.

Disease Control Programmes

• National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme- It is an umbrella programme for prevention and control of vector borne diseases namely Malaria, Japanese Encephalitis, Dengue, Chikungunya, Kala azar, and Lymphatic Filariasis.

• National Leprosy Eradication Programme- It aims to detect cases of leprosy at an early stage and provide complete treatment, free of cost, in order to prevent the occurrence of Grade II Disability (G2D) in affected persons.

The programme has achieved the elimination of leprosy as a public health problem as per WHO criteria of less than 1 case per 10,000 population at the National level in 2005.

• National TB Elimination Program- It is launched with the goal of achieving Sustainable Development Goals related to TB by 2025, five years ahead of the global target of 2030.
• Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan- It was launched in 2021 to provide additional support to TB patients in order to improve treatment outcomes, augment community involvement and leverage Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities.
• Nikshay Poshan Yojana- It was launched in 2018 for providing Rs 500/month as Direct Benefit Transfer to support the nutrition of TB patients for the entire duration of treatment.
• National AIDS and STD Control Programme (Phase-V)- It is a Central Sector Scheme with the focus on UN SDG 3.3 of ending HIV/AIDS epidemic as a public health threat through a comprehensive package of prevention, detection, and treatment.

E-Initiatives

• Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission- It was launched to create a seamless online platform through the provision of a wide-range of data and infrastructure services through digital systems.
• National Telemedicine Service (e-sanjeevani)-It provides access to specialized medical healthcare across the country by providing facility for doctor-to- doctor consultation and patient-to-doctor consultation. 
  • e-Sanjeevani AB-HWC- Doctor to doctor tele consultation
  • e-Sanjeevani OPD- Patient to doctor tele consultation
• Global Initiative on Digital Health- It was introduced during G20 India’s presidency in 2023 to create a common platform’to converge global efforts for digital health and bridge the digital divide by promoting equitable access to technological tools.
• Mera Aspataal- It is a patient feedback system launched in 2016 with the mandate to integrate Central Government Hospitals and District Hospitals on the feedback portal.
• Tele-evidence- It is a modality through which doctors can testify in the judicial process utilizing the video conferencing facility without visiting the courts.
• CoWIN- It is a cloud based IT solution for COVID vaccination that allows user to register, verify and monitor their registration status online.
• Tele MANAS- It provides universal access to equitable, accessible, affordable and quality mental health care through 24X7 tele-mental health services.
• National Digital Health Blueprint- It is a policy document launched in 2017 that outlines the vision of creating a national digital health eco-system that supports universal health coverage.

Other key initiatives

• Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra- To raise awareness about the government's policies and schemes among the people and foster an atmosphere of trust and collaboration.
• National COVID 19 Vaccination Programme- It is the world’s largest vaccination programme launched in 2021, initially to cover the adult population in the shortest possible time.
• National Programme for Tobacco Control and Drug Addiction Treatment- To regulate tobacco use depiction on Over-The-Top (OTT) media platforms, it conducts tobacco youth free campaign among other activities.
• Swasthya Nagrik Abhiyaan- To conduct campaign which will lead to generation of demand for health services and promote health seeking behaviour.

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1990674