India

When we think about childcare in the US these dire topics probably never enter our minds.

Rs 40,000 cr Maternal, Child Care Programme

Pondicherry, Feb 12: Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramadoss has said a Rs 40,000 crore maternal and child health care programme would be implemented soon, giving emphasis to the rural population.

Coming under the National Rural Health Mission, the five-year programme would include inoculation of babies and extending health facilities to the rural women.

Laying the foundation stone for the Rs.114.67 crore super-speciality block, trauma care and cancer care centres and a nursing college at the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Education and Research here today, he said, "The programme aims at reaching the unreached in the remotest of areas."

He claimed that his ministry has made laudable achievements in the process of eliminating leprosy and bringing down the incidence of tuberculosis in the country.

However a lot remained to be done in the field of HIV and AIDS control. Pondicherry came under the category of states with medium prevalence rate in HIV, he said.

He also gave details of the achievements of the National Rural Health Mission which started in April last year in bettering rural health services.

Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Panabaka Lakshmi and Pondicherry Chief Minister N Rangasamy were among those who attended the function.