Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology Held in New Delhi

New Delhi: The 54th All India Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology began in Mumbai today. Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare was the Chief Guest at the inaugural programme.
Addressing the function, Azad said Maternal and Child Health has received utmost priority from the Health Ministry. There has been a significant decline in MMR, IMR and TFR in India. The current MMR as per the latest Sample Registration Survey is 212 per 100,000 live-births and the IMR is 44 per 1,000 live births.
However, the current pace of decline needs to be further accelerated to achieve the commitments on the millennium development goals. About 28 million pregnancies occur along with an estimated 56,000 maternal deaths in India every year.
Accordingly, our task is more challenging due to the regional disparities that exist in the country with the states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Orissa and Assam contributing to more than two-thirds of the MMR burden. We have an urban India and a huge rural India with long pending and ever increasing demands for provision of healthcare services.
He said since the launch of National Rural Health Mission 7 years ago, substantial progress has been achieved. About Rs. 90,000 crores has been provided to States/UTs. New Health Infrastructure has been created. About 43,500 new construction and up-gradation works were taken up to improve health facilities. About 70,000 beds have been increased in the country in government health institutions for provision of essential and emergency services.
An innovative scheme of providing cash assistance to pregnant women delivering in public health facilities was launched. Under the Safe Motherhood Scheme, the number of women choosing to access and deliver in public health institutions at primary, community, district and tertiary hospitals rose from 7,00,000 in 2005-06 to over 11 million in 2011-12.Amajor nation-wide intervention was added in 2011 to eliminate totally out-of-pocket expenses for both pregnant women and sick neonates.(Source PIB)