World Health Organization (WHO) has praised India’s significant healthcare gains, particularly in maternal and child health and the fight against noncommunicable diseases In a social media post, the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that through 160,000 Ayushman Arogya Mandirs, India is bringing screening for hypertension, diabetes and common cancers closer to communities, with referral pathways for further care.
He said India’s ASHA workers are another powerful example of healthcare reaching people where they are, supporting mothers and children from conception through adolescence.
Ghebreyesus met Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda on the sidelines of the 79th Session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia recently in Dili, TimorLeste, where the two leaders discussed India’s healthcare achievements as well as its ongoing cooperation with the global health body.
The meeting also covered India’s determined efforts to end TB, strengthen regulation of medical products and its continued support for WHO on global health priorities.
Tedros also praised the rise in institutional deliveries in India and its efforts to end TB. “Together with expanded immunization and the rise in institutional deliveries from 78 per cent to 93 per cent, this is contributing to sustained declines in maternal and child mortality. We also discussed India’s determined efforts to #EndTB, strengthen regulation of medical products, and its important support for @ WHO, including on traditional medicine and the ongoing negotiations on the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system of the WHO Pandemic Agreement. #RC79”.
Healthcare infrastructure
Nadda highlighted the expansion of India’s medical education and healthcare infrastructure while addressing the Ministerial Roundtable on “Human Resources for Health: Equity in Specialized Care”.
He said the number of medical colleges in the country has more than doubled from 387 to 858 since 2014, while MBBS seats have increased from 51,348 to 1,42,464 and postgraduate seats from 31,185 to 86,287.
