“NGOs, corporates must drive Ayushman Bharat”

New Delhi: While addressing the conference on ‘Sharing of Best Practices: Improving Maternal, New Born and Child Health in India’ at New Delhi, Dr Dinesh Arora, Director, Ayushman Bharat, urged the NGOs to get associated with NITI Aayog for Ayushman Bharat and bridge the gaps for scalability, sustainability and outcome of various initiatives.

The event was jointly organized by FICCI- Aditya Birla CSR Centre of Excellence and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals’ CSR arm Glenmark Foundation.

Dr Arora said that Ayushman Bharat (National Health Protection Scheme) is an entitlement-based scheme and not enrolment based. The challenge, however, is intimating the beneficiaries about their entitlement. He pointed that all the Gram Sabhas of the country will be commemorating an Ayushman Bharat Diwas on 30th April wherein the eligibility list will be shared and put on public display.

Talking about the 115 aspirational districts project announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for transforming these districts, lagging on specific development parameters, he said that NITI Aayog is spearheading the project for the transformation of these districts.

“NGOs working in the field and corporates must come forward and help us in transforming these districts because if these districts get transformed, India gets transformed. We are determined, by 2022, these districts will be in the mainstream,” he added.

Although India has seen a decline in Infant Mortality Rates (IMR) and Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) over the past decade, child and maternal deaths continue to be a key concern, particularly in rural areas, as awareness around hygiene, nutrition and immunization remains low.

Mr Jason D’souza, Senior Vice President and Head, Corporate Strategy, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals in his address said, “There is a need to build capacity for greater impact and scale up of programmes in the domain of maternal & child health. It is important to work towards reducing infant and child mortality by reducing malnutrition, increasing immunization and improving sanitation practices. It is imperative that we adopt methods and resources which will help us in design a healthy and a sustainable future.”

Ms Jyoti Vij, Deputy Secretary-General, FICCI said, “We have been mobilizing India Inc’s management skills to address various developmental gaps and support the initiatives of the government through CSR. IISH (Indian Industry in Solidarity for Health) Kosh was launched by FICCI to work collaboratively with the Government to meet health challenges of the country.”