Special: Call to Action - The National Summit on Child Survival and Family Welfare
Since 1990, the child mortality rate in India has dropped by 45 percent. This progress is proof that the technology and know-how to reach even the most vulnerable children with life-saving interventions are available.
In spite of the steady progress, the challenge of being the second most populous country with diverse geo-socio-cultural conditions and sub-national disparities, India is still among the top four that account for 50% of global under-five mortality. In this context, India co-convened the June 2012 Global Call to Action on child survival along with Ethiopia and United States of America.
At this high-level forum organized in collaboration with USAID-UNICEF, the Hon'ble Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad assured that India shall remain in the forefront of the global war against child mortality and morbidity. The urgent priority is on convergence of health and child services under universal health coverage with a focus on special requirements of vulnerable and marginalized groups.
Objectives
The Call to Action will be a shared platform for concerned ministries and inter-ministerial dialogue for the centre and states, Global and Indian expertise, good will ambassadors, private sector, civil society, media and faith-based organizations to share experiences and challenges; celebrate successes in maternal, newborn and child survival and development programmes; and, pledge to recommit them-selves to address challenges in implementation.
The ministry will launch an enabling strategic roadmap (RMNCH+A) with and other development initiatives as community based management of acute malnutrition and screening for congenital disorders; engage with all partners to arrive at actionable goals and commitments for high-burden states aimed to reduce the deaths of children from preventable causes.
In order to provide guidance for implementation of specific interventions and programme components, detailed guidelines and costed plans are shared by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. Given below is the list of new documents that are being released during the Summit.
1. A Strategic Approach to Reproductive Maternal Newborn Child Health and Adolescents (RMNCH + A) in India Reducing maternal and child mortality are among the most important goals of the National Rural Health Mission. Huge and strategic investments are being made by Government of India to achieve these goals. Download complete document
2. Maternal and Newborn Care Toolkit The Maternal and Newborn Health toolkit has been developed to help programme managers and clinicians in organizing the ritical areas of service provision as per standards laid down in the toolkit for Maternal and Neonatal Health (MNH) services in the States and districts. Download complete tool kit 3. Mapping of CSOs and FBOs India’s commitment during child survival call to action meet in Washington continues and resulted into constitution of steering committee and sub group committees. Their role is to organize various activities of importance to India Specific Child Survival Call to Action. Download the report
4. Skills Lab for RMNCH Services: Operational Guidelines Strengthening competency based training of health care providers for Reproductive Maternal Newborn and Child Health (RMNCH) services Download guidelines
Award for India’s achievement of two polio free years CHENNAI, India, 8 February 2013 - Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare today received an award in recognition of the landmark achievement of India completing two years with no newly reported cases of polio.
Since 1990, the child mortality rate in India has dropped by 45 per cent. Yet, the country is still among the top four that account for 50 per cent of global under-five mortality. India co-convened the June 2012 Global Call to Action on child survival along with Ethiopia and United States of America, showing its commitment to remain in the forefront of the global war against child mortality and morbidity. Now, India is taking its commitment one step further, organising the “Child Survival Call to Action for Every Child in India” that will be held in Chennai, from 7 to 9 January.
New health centres help India battle high infant mortality rates
The high levels of child malnutrition seen in Madhya Pradesh are the result of a ‘perfect storm’ for children that associates high levels of malnutrition in others, poor child feeding practices in the first two years of life and high levels of infection in children’s environments; for many children, this is compounded by food insecurity and poverty in their households and limited access to basic services for them and their mothers.
An around-the-clock village health centre proves to be a lifeline for thousands
In September 2012, UNICEF released the 2012 Progress Report on Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed. The report shows that the number of children dying before the age of 5 has drastically declined over the past two decades
