Even six years after a task force mooted the idea, the files for launching an exclusive National Urban Health Mission to effectively address the health needs of the urban poor are still being sent from one ministry to another and the proposed allocation has lapsed.
“Currently, the process of wider consultations with stakeholders including States and Union Territories and concerned Central ministries and departments to finalise the contours of the proposal is underway. It will be difficult to lay down a specific time frame for operationalising the national urban health mission,” as per the official response on the status of the proposal.
According to sources, the health ministry still wants to have more rounds of consultations with the stakeholders to finalise the details, following objections by different ministries. The discussions have already been held with various stakeholders including State Governments, Union Territories, Ministry of Urban Development, Department of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation among others. But no consensus could be reached yet on the proposal and the final outcome of the whole exercises was the decision to hold further consultations to 'finalise the contours of the mission and formation of the framework of its implementation.'
As the result, the Rs.4495 crore sanctioned by the Centre for the current 11th Five Year Plan for the purpose has been lapsed. With no clearance yet on the proposal, nothing has been spent in this regard.
The ambitious proposal, on the line of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), was a bold attempt to reverse the healthcare fortune of over 60 million slum dwellers through a number of existing health flagship programmes. As many as 430 cities with a total population of 22 crore with focus on 6.25 crore population in the listed and unlisted slums would get the benefits.
This was mooted by a task force way back in 2005 to effectively address the health needs of the urban population in general and urban poor in particular. The studies in support of the proposal also showed that urban health indicators, in comparison to the rural indices, were not improving in proportion. Around 30.1 per cent of children below three years in the urban areas were found to be underweight while the proportion in rural areas was 43.7 per cent.