Health indicators are positive in Orissa

PNS Bhubaneswar, 18th Feb 2010

Most of the trends and health indicators in Odisha are very positive. MMR (Maternal Mortality Rate) has decreased to 303 witnessing 55 point decline, said Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Anu Garg while delivering her speech on the concluding day of the “Regional Conference on Population, Health and Social Development in Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal”, organised by Population Foundation of India.

She further said that the full immunization coverage in the State reached to 74 per cent and above all institutional delivery has reached 76 per cent. “The RCH programme has adopted the continuum of care model. Odisha is also planning to introduce Voucher scheme to cover transportation cost. She also talked in detail about various child health and family welfare initiatives taken by the State Government,’’ she said.

Dr Abid Hussain, former Indian Ambassador to the US, currently member of the Governing Board of PFI, said Odisha is now showing signs of speedy development. He also stressed upon three important issues-3Ms for Odisha; Malnutrition, Malaria and Maternal health.

Speaking on the occasion, J M. Chaki, Dy Director MOHFW WB said that for MMR to decline 48 hrs stay for mothers is need to be ensured. “Twenty per cent of delivery is still to be institutionalised due to lack of infrastructure. Though we reached replacement level of fertility but desired level of MMR and IMR is yet to be reached. Therefore focus need to be directed to reduce neonatal mortality,” Chaki said.

At the end of the two-day conference, summing up the sessions Dr Arundhati Mishra, Additional Director of PFI observed that, to deal with IMR, there should be increased infrastructure facilities, provides quality health services, increased manpower and improved mobility.

Earlier, Bharti Ghosh , Joint Secretary, Panchayat and Rural Development, Government of West Bengal, Prof. SK Guha of IIT Kharagpur, Ranjan Panda of CINI and Pritha Biswas of CBCI., Prof. Bhagaban Prakash, Sociologist, Dr. Prafulla Kumar Sahoo, Chairman, Civil Society Initiatives in Odisha and Deepak Ranjan Mishra, PFI-Global Fund, Lucknow also spoke on the occasion.