Every day, we are saving the lives of 840 children: Modi

At Partners’ Forum meet in Delhi, prime minister expresses satisfaction about the global plaudits for Mission Indradhanush

Describing Mission Indradhanush as a programme “close” to his heart, prime minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday expressed his satisfaction at the vaccination campaign has been accorded the status of a global best practice.

“I am pleased to note that India’s immunization programme, a subject close to my heart, is being featured as a success story in this forum. Under Mission Indradhanush, we reached 32.8 million children and 8.4 million pregnant women over the last three years. We have also increased the number of vaccines under the universal immunization programme from 7 to 12. Our vaccines now cover life threatening diseases like- Pneumonia and Diarrhoea,” Modi said in his address at the inaugural session of the 2018 Partners’ Forum in Delhi.

J P Nadda said that the government will increase health spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2025, reaching to more than 100 Billion USD

The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (The Partnership, PMNCH) is an alliance of more than 1000 organizations in 192 countries from the sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health communities, as well as health influencing sectors. The Partnership provides a platform for organizations to align objectives, strategies and resources, and agree on interventions to improve maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health. This is the fourth edition of the meeting, the second to be held in Delhi.

He said that since the time the NDA government took office at the Centre, every day the lives of 840 children are being saved thanks to the interventions made towards the health of every woman and every child. The country has 25 million new-borns each year. “Our robust facility based new-born care system, which provides care to more than 1 million new-born babies through 794 state of the art Special New-born Care Units, has served as a successful model. As a result of our interventions, 840 additional lives of children under five are being saved each day in India as compared to four years back,” Modi said.

He reiterated the government of India’s commitment to Universal Health Coverage. In his speech health minister J P Nadda said that the government will increase health spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2025, reaching to more than 100 Billion USD. “Government of India is exploring innovative financing mechanisms and has introduced health cess that will generate additional US $ 1.5 billion to support new health initiatives. India pledges to continue leveraging more resources.