NATIONAL URBAN SANITATION: POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES

Abstract

The Govt. of india approved the Rs. 22,507-crore National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) that seeks to address healthcare challenges in towns and cities with focus on urban poor. The scheme will now be introduced as a submission under the National Health Mission (NHM). The mission will be implemented in 779 cities and towns, each with a population of more than 50,000, and cover over 7.75 crore people. The NUHM aims to improve the health status of the urban population in general, and the poor and other disadvantaged sections in particular, by facilitating equitable access to quality health care through a revamped primary public health care system, targeted outreach services and involvement of the community and urban local bodies. The NUHM will be on the lines of the Health and Family Welfare Ministry’s flagship National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) launched in 2005 to address the health challenges of rural India. The interventions under this sub-mission will aim to result in the reduction of the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and the Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR), universal access to reproductive health care and the convergence of all health-related interventions Under the scheme, the government proposes to set up one Urban Primary Health Centre for a population of 50,000 -60,000, one Urban Community Health Centre for five to six urban Primary Health Centres in big cities, an Auxiliary Nursing Midwives (ANM) for a population of 10,000 and an Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) (community link worker) for 200 to 500 households