Health & Family Welfare Secretary calls for media's active role in reaching out health schemes to masses
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, November 30 2018: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) Secretary Preeti Sudan has called for media's 'innovative and creative input1 in the effort to reach out the message ofhealth schemes and initiatives taken up by both the Central Government and State Government to every citizens.

The Health & Family Welfare Secretary was delivering key-note address at the one-day media orientation workshop on Partnership for maternal, newborn and child health which was organized by MOHFW, GoI at the conference hall of The Royal Plaza on November 28 and participated by different media personnel and journalists from various States of India, including Manipur and Sikkim.

She appealed all concerned to comprehensively take forward the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child health (PMNCH).

a global health partnership initiative launched in September 2005 to reduce child and maternal mortality, improve adolescent, child, newborn and maternal health.

Further pointing out that media has become an integral part of life, Preeti Sudan conveyed that the Ministry organised the workshop to make a collaborative effort to carry forward the achievements of PMNCH.

She said that there are lot of achievements in the healthcare perspectives of the country, including paradigm shift in the women's health care which was initially focused on the framework on maternal health to the present broader aspect of women's healthcare apart from the successful implementation of free immunization and many other schemes for children.

"However, there are still many more to be done to fortify healthcare in India," she continued while acknowledging the many challenges before the authorities concerned.

National Health Mission (NHM) Additional Secretary and Mission Director Manoj Jhalani while speaking at the function highlighted the six themes of Every Woman Every Child (EWEC) movement, which is a global movement which was launched by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon during the UN Millennium Development Goals Summit in 2010.He stated that the six said themes are early childhood development, adolescent health and wellbeing, quality, sexual and reproductive health, empowerment of women, girls and communities and in humanitarian and fragile settings.

Apart from group works presented by media personnel participated in the workshop, a critical appraisal skills programme in public health with focus on immunization was also held later in the afternoon session on the same day as part of the one-day media orientation workshop.

It may be mentioned here that the media orientation programme was organized in connection with Partners' Forum 2018, an international conference which will be hosted by India on December 12 and 13 this year in New Delhi.

About 1,200 participants from across 90 countries who are working to improve the health and wellbeing of women, new-borns and adolescents are expected to take part in the said international conference.

Comment