New Delhi, Dec 18 (Inditop.com) The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), the healthcare programme of the government aimed at the country’s neglected rural population, is not being implemented properly by state governments, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) said here Friday.
The report on the performance of NRHM was tabled in parliament.
“The objectives of the mission are very good. But the implementation of the programme by states leaves much to be desired,” Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Rekha Gupta told reporters.
“The centre will have to play a supervisory role. It will have to monitor the progress of the programme,” Gupta said.
Highlighting the mission’s positive impact, the report said that the increased patient inflow at primary and community health centres, improved institutional deliveries and immunisation efforts are an indicator of the mission’s impact on healthcare delivery
“The percentage of women receiving post natal care increased in eight states and union territories,” the report added.
According to the CAG report, during 2005-08, the government made a budget provision of Rs 27,079 crore (Rs 270.79 billion) for NRHM but only Rs 24,151 crore (Rs 241.51 billion) was spent.
“Many high focus states,where health indicators were poor, received relatively lesser central grants, as high unspent balances of previous years remained, indicating that capacity building needs to be focused on,” the report said.
“Induction training of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) was incomplete in most of states and union territories. The mobile medical units, meant to take medical care to the patients doorstep in far flung regions, had not been operationalised in many states even though substantial funds had been released for the purpose,” it added.
The states were required to contribute 15 percent of the funds required for the mission since 2007-08, but as per the report, “during 2007-08 only four states and during 2008-09 only nine states and union territories had contributed the full or more than the required share.”
“Eighteen states and union territories in 2007-08 and two states and union territories in 2008-09 did not contribute at all,” it added.
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