Union Health Minister JP Nadda on Monday said that over 3.6 crore people were screened in the nine lakh health camps organised across the country under the ‘Swasth Nari, Sashakt Parivar Abhiyaan’.
Nadda made the revelation, speaking at a media event in the national capital, and noted that in the health camps, screenings were conducted for non-communicable diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, and cancers.
The minister said the numbers are expected to reach 4 crore by October 2, the concluding day of the health initiative launched on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday.
Check-ups for pregnant women were also conducted in the camps, along with the distribution of vaccines to children. The health camp also provided nutrition counseling to families to curb the anemia cases.
Further, the health camps also conducted screening for tuberculosis and Sickle Cell Disease, registered blood donors, and issued new Ayushman/PM-JAY cards.
The Health Minister said the country’s health policy has undergone an overhaul in the past decade, adopting a holistic approach. “In this approach, we started looking at health by incorporating prevention, health promotion, detection, curative, and palliative care into our system,” he added.
As part of this continued approach, he noted that the government has established 1,79,000 Ayushman Arogya Mandirs, which serve as the first point of contact to connect with 140 crore citizens.
He also highlighted the efforts of grassroots-level workers in supporting pregnant women, noting that ASHA workers begin tracking a woman’s health, check-ups, and data from the very day she conceives, and share this information with the state government.
He also shared the achievements in the rate of institutional deliveries.
“Our institutional delivery rate has increased from 79 per cent to about 90 per cent. This progress has been possible because we incentivised ASHA workers. For every mother, the delivery is free, and the transportation to the institution and back home is provided by the government,” Nadda said.