JOIN USMPs join hands to discuss children's health issues
A group of parliamentarians has come together to form a forum to address the issue of children dying due to pneumonia and diarrhoea in the country. The issue will be raised in the winter session of Parliament which starts this month.
Dr Sanjay Jaiswal, Member of Parliament and co-convenor of the forum said, “Pneumonia and diarrhoea are two diseases that are killing lakhs of children every year in India. What is even more unfortunate is that the target is often the poorest of children with little or no access to medical attention. It’s time we addressed this critical issue of child survival in India.”
The forum, called the Forum on Child Survival, is not a government appointed body, but an initiative of parliamentarians from across the party lines.
“We will raise the issue in the coming Parliament session. Also, we will meet the health minister to address pneumonia- and diarrhoea-related problems among children,” said Dr Jaiswal.
He said both the diseases are widespread but the primary health centres (PHC) do not have the required medicines.
“The government approved list of medicines for PHCs does not include medicine for diarrhoea caused due to rotavirus. For pneumonia also only basic antibiotics are given even though in India higher antibiotics are available cheap. It will not cost the government much, but will help the children a lot,” added Dr Jaiswal.
The list of all forum members will be released on November 22.
Dr Ajoy Kumar, who is the other co-convenor of the forum, said members will engage with experts such as doctors, civil society representatives and organisations working on child survival to strategise on how to make this issue more visible.
Every year nearly seven million children die globally of various forms of pneumonia and diarrhoea.
India accounts for one-fifth of these deaths.
The worst hit are the poor with studies showing that as much as 2-3 billion rupee is spent annually just treating rotavirus diarrhoea in children who are under five.
Diarrhoea caused due to rotavirus is the most common one in India.