India Is Reaching The Last Mile Through Health and Wellness Centres: Union Health Minister

New Delhi: “Health is the ultimate wealth,” said Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, while addressing the 76th session of the World Health Organization Regional Committee for South-East Asia on October 30. Dr Mandaviya said that the country is following a holistic and inclusive approach towards strengthening the healthcare system.

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The session was also joined by Union Health Secretary Sudhansh Pant, who spoke about the establishment of the South-East Asia Regional Forum for Primary Health Care (PHC)-oriented Health Systems and its significance in addressing the challenges of PHC.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), had also joined the session, wherein he lauded the efforts of the Union Health Ministry for its commitment towards combating non-communicable diseases and achieving the goal of ‘Health for All’. Dr Tedros said that seven of the 11 member countries of the Southeast Asia region, including India, have successfully eliminated at least one of the neglected tropical diseases.

Dr. Poonam Kethrapal, Regional Director of the WHO South-East Asia Region, commended India’s achievement in operationalising more than 1,50,000 Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs).

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NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – theLGBTQ population,indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the currentCOVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water,SanitationandHygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fightmalnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health,adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues likeair pollution,waste management,plastic ban,manual scavengingand sanitation workers andmenstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India wheretoilets are used andopen defecation free (ODF)status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched byPrime Minister Narendra Modiin 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.