Gandhinagar: Union minister Dr Bharati Pawar said here on Thursday (August 17) that the COVID-19 pandemic taught people that no one is safe until everyone is safe. The Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare also said that India’s G20 Presidency has revolved around the philosophy of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ – the world is one family. She was addressing the G20 Deputies’ Meeting that commenced here on Thursday ahead of the G20 Health Ministers’ Meeting starting Friday. The official release quoted her saying,
India’s G20 Presidency has revolved around the philosophy of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ – the world is one family. Nowhere is this more important than in the field of global health as the pandemic taught us that no one is safe until everyone is safe.
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Dr V K Paul, Member (Health) of NITI Aayog, was also present at the meeting that is underway at the Mahatma Mandir convention centre in Gandhinagar as part of India’s G20 presidency.
Union minister Dr Pawar underlined the crucial deliberations that have been taking place in the Health Working Groups of India’s G20 Presidency.
Noting that the first priority addressing Health Emergencies Prevention Preparedness and Response (HEPPR) has been a core priority in every G20 Health Working Group since inception, she said,
The Indian G20 Presidency has put special focus on the critical threats of One Health, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and climate change. The second priority on addressing the need to ensure equitable access to affordable medical countermeasures highlights the need to establish a global MCM (medical countermeasures) coordination platform that envisions the establishment of research and development, and manufacturing networks across the globe.
This will enable access to quality and affordable vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics, the minister noted.
On the development and use of digital health innovations and solutions which is the third health priority under India’s G20 Presidency, Dr Pawar said the Global Initiative for Digital Health (GIDH) has been envisaged to have a convergent approach that breaks the silos and ensures that existing and ongoing digital health efforts can be made accessible under one umbrella. She added,
The crucial task of ensuring all the hard work and incredible efforts during the Indian G20 presidency comes to fulfilment today. The declaration that you will be finalising today will be the culmination of deep and informed discussion that has taken place over three working group meetings and countless bilateral and multilateral meetings.
Dr Pawar said that addressing inequality in access to healthcare is at the core of all our efforts under this G20 presidency.
The three priorities and their related deliverables have the potential to make global healthcare services more accessible and affordable, especially for people in vulnerable situations and those in low-and middle-income countries.
Union Health Secretary Sudhansh Pant said the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in rapid development of ad hoc global mechanisms to address the imperative need to prevent the pandemic from worsening and to plan for future pandemics. He said,
This, however, led to considerable duplication of efforts and fragmentation. Therefore, India’s G20 Presidency since the beginning emphasized the need for convergence of efforts in the HEPPR space as a major priority to aid in creating a converged and agile global health architecture.
Mr Pant added that India’s G20 Health Working Groups and the 14 co-branded events arranged alongside covered the pressing health concerns in the world. He also noted that the discussions in the last three Health Working Groups got us closer to our mutual goal of building a convergent global health architecture.
The statement said that members of the Troika from Indonesia and Brazil commended the Indian Presidency for prioritising the key health challenges in the world today. They recommended collaboration on adopting a multi-sectoral approach and investing in better health systems.
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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 wheretoiletsare 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.
