Dr Harsh Vardhan calls for CSR funds to back plan to build toilets
New Delhi,Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Health Minister,
has unveiled a package of measures putting the government’s resolve to end
child diarrhoea deaths on the overdrive. Apart from health interventions, the
role of the wider community would be sought in generating awareness on the
simple steps that could lead to such tragedies being avoided.
“Our government has placed unprecedented emphasis on out of the box solutions
to long –standing problems. So much has been done for so many years. What we
now need are ideas which defy the trodden path and call for courageous action,”
the Minister said.
The fact that India’s health administrators failed to spread mass awareness on
diarrhoea management speaks volumes of the inefficiency of previous programmes,
the Minister stated. It is therefore time to think up novel communication
vehicles, he added. Diarrhoea kills more than 200,000 children annually, the
third biggest cause of child mortality.
The Minister said, “We don’t have forever to bring down the death rate. By
September 2015 we have to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
I have therefore called for large scaling pooling of synergies to challenge the
scourge of child deaths.”
Outlining the rationale of IDCF, the Minister said it would mobilise health personnel
at both central and state levels and from the volunteer sector to give momentum
to diarrhoea control measures. It is essentially a set of activities which
include enhancing advocacy, step up awareness generation, establish more
ORS-Zinc corners, enthuse ASHA volunteers to reach Oral Rehydration Solution
packets to families with children as well as detect children in need of
treatment, Dr Harsh Vardhan said.
The Minister appealed to mothers not to stop breast feeding children under six
months with diarrhoea symptoms. This is covered under IDCF’s programme of
spreading knowledge of best practices of infant and child feeding.
Elaborating on the programme through a presentation, Dr MathuramSantosham of
John Hopkins University, Maryland, USA and Dr Rakesh Kumar, Joint Secretary in
the Health Ministry, said that during the fortnight intensified community
awareness campaigns on hygiene and age-appropriate childhood feeding practices
and promotion of ORS and Zinc Therapy will be conducted at the state, district
and village levels.
Mr Louis-Georges Arsenault, UNICEF’s India Representative, felicitated the
Ministry for organising IDCF saying it would re-energise India’s efforts to
prevent child deaths in the country by increasing access to life-saving interventions.
Dr NataMenabde, World Health Organisation’s chief in India, said, “Many
children in the developing world cannot access urgent medical care for severe
illnesses for want of hygiene, sanitation, safe drinking water and exclusive
breast feeding. These should be the critical components of diarrhoea control.”
Mr LovVerma, Union Health Secretary, said that there had been a decline in
infant and child mortality rates in recent years owing to increased access to
immunisation and child health services.
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