National Urban Health Mission

DESARAJU SURYA
Hyderabad: The Government of India will launch the National Urban HealthMission (NUHM), on the lines of the ongoing National Rural Health Mission. The goal of NUHM is to improve the availability of and access to quality health care by people, especially those residing in urban slums, the poor, women and children. The proposed NUHM will be in convergence with the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), according to joint secretary in the Union Ministry for housing and urban poverty alleviation, Dr P K Mohanty. Mohanty said the Centre has earmarked Rs 5160 crore for the NUHM, which would be implemented over a five-year period. Access to integrated comprehensive primary healthcare to the urban slum-dwellers would be the main objective of the NUHM. Prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases, including locally endemic diseases, and total sanitation would be the other focus areas of the Mission. The NUHM will cover 100 cities in the first phase and later extended to 330 more cities to benefit over 22 crore people, including about five-crore slum population. Cities with a population of over one lakh, state capitals and district headquarters will be brought under NUHM purview. Urban Social Health Activists (USHAs) will be appointed, each catering to a population of 2,000. The government would pay the health insurance premium for slum-dwellers while the private sector and Non-Government Organisations would also be involved in reaching out to the urban poor under the programme, official sources said. The Union Cabinet is expected to give its formal approval to NUHM and make it operational soon.