JOIN USThe State government has sought Rs 101.55 crore from the Centre for implementing the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) in Karnataka.
The proposal is likely to be approved within a month and the first phase of the programme will be implemented in September, a source in the Department of Health and Family Welfare said.
Meant mainly for the urban poor, the NUHM will provide primary healthcare and improve health infrastructure. In the first phase, parts of Bangalore, Bagalkot and Ullal in Dakshina Kannada district will be covered and the scheme will be extended across the State later, Health Minister U T Khader said. The State will contribute Rs 34 crore for the scheme.
Under the programme, urban women of 50 to 100 houses in a neighbourhood will be encouraged to form Women Health Committees. Each committee will get Rs 5,000 every year. Primary healthcare centres will be established for a population of 50,000.
Besides, the Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation Programme (WIFS) will be launched in Bangalore on July 17 by Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Ghulam Nabi Azad. The programme will cover approximately 13 crore beneficiaries in the country. The programme envisages a weekly supplementation of iron and Folic Acid tablets for all schoolchildren. The National Family Health Survey-III estimated that more than five crore adolescents were anaemic in India. Adolescent girls, according to the report, were more prone to anaemia.
According to NFHS-III, 56 per cent of adolescent girls aged between 15 and 19 are anaemic. Of them, 15 per cent are moderately anaemic and two per cent severely anaemic.