Karnataka Directorate of Health and Family Welfare has received a grant of Rs.860 crore under the National Rural Health Mission for this year. For this, 85 per cent of the funding comes from the Union government and the remaining 15 per cent is chipped in by the state government. Since its implementation of the NRHM by the government of India in 2005, the state has received a financial assistance to the tune of Rs.2,542 crore up to July 2011.


The Karnataka Health Systems Development Project which assists the NRHM scheme focuses on innovative concepts in healthcare and the World Bank funded initiative has received funds to the tune of Rs.899 crore till March 2012.


The funding has helped to give a major fillip to the healthcare initiatives with the objective of reducing the maternal and neo-natal mortality rates by promoting institutional deliveries among economically backward women represented under the Below the Poverty Line (BPL), S Selva Kumar, mission director, NRHM stated during the workshop for the media.


Schemes like the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) have helped to support the population for maternal and child health besides help prevent and control communicable diseases. There are 32,944 ASHAs serving the rural areas.


Under NRHM one Village Health & Sanitation Committee per one inhabited village was constituted. Currently Karnataka has 27,481 inhabited revenue villages in the state and so far 25, 208 VHSC have been constituted. Around 5 lakh VHSC members have been trained under the Capacity Building programme through non-governmental organizations.


“These initiatives have helped the state to achieve an Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) of 41 in 2009 from 47 in 2007. Maternal Mortality Rate has also reduced from 228 in 2007 to 178 in 2009. The Total Fatality Rate (TFR) is now at 2 from 2.07. The improvement in mortality rate among women and children is attributed by the rapid increase in institutional deliveries which has increased from 65 per cent in 2007 to 86. 4 per cent in 2009, that had helped both the survival of mother and child, he added.


Every effort was being made to ensure that the rural population was having access to good healthcare services. The total immunization recorded has also improved from 76 per cent to 78 per cent. Even the fatal cases due to mosquito borne diseases like malaria and dengue have reduced by 50 percent . Of the 1200 PHCs located in the rural areas of the state, we have been able to provide 24/7 services at 999 centres of which 311 are PHCs in 7 ‘C’ category districts of Gulbarga, Bagalkot, Koppal, Bidar, Bijapur, Raichur and Charmajanagar, centres apart from 192 Taluk First Referral Units, he said.


Under the NRHM, we have been able to improve the infrastructure and medical technology. There is a fund allocation of Rs.1.7 lakh for the PHCs, Rs.2 lakh for Community Health Centres and Rs.5 lakh to District Hospitals which has helped to contain epidemics. A total of 236 centres have been upgraded which covers 138 Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) centres, 94 PHCs and 4 Community Health Centres.


The state has been able to achieve this inspite of the acute shortage of specialists and doctors in the rural areas. Although efforts to lure specialists with a lucrative salary package and other incentives are being made, there has been lukewarm response to the recruitment initiatives, he said.