Mizoram, Goa, Thoubal receive 5th JRD Tata Memorial Award
Source: The Sangai Express / Manipur Info Centre

New Delhi, August 02 2012: Mizoram and Goa and six districts received the 5th JRD Tata Memorial Award for outstanding performance in improving the health of their people in recent years.

While Mizoram was selected from among 18 high-focus States, defined under the National Rural Health Mission as States with poor health indicators and weak infrastructure, Goa led from among the non high-focus States.

The award winning districts are � Varanasi from Uttar Pradesh, Jajpur from Odisha and Thoubal from Manipur, among high-focus States in the large, medium and small population categories respectively; and Ahmadnagar in Maharashtra, Firozpur in Punjab and North Goa in Goa from the non high-focus States in the large, medium and small population categories.

The award, instituted in memory of Founder Chairman JRD Tata, recognizes the pace of progress by States and districts on population and reproductive health programmes.

Nobel Laureate and renowned economist Prof Amartya Sen presented the award to senior Ministers and District Collectors from the award-winning States and districts at the JRD Tata Memorial Oration and Awards ceremony on July 31 in New Delhi.

Mr Francis D'Souza, Minister for Urban Development, Government of Goa, received the award a trophy and Rs 15 lakh � on behalf of his State, while Mr Lalrinliana Sailo, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Government of Mizoram accepted the trophy and Rs 10 lakh on behalf of Mizoram.

District Collectors Mr Sorabh Babu of Varanasi, Mr Anil Kumar Samal of Jajpur, Dr Sanjeev Kumar of Ahmadnagar, Dr S Karuna Raju of Firozpur and Mr K Radhakumar Singh of Thoubal were each presented with a trophy and Rs 2 lakh prize money for their districts.

The prize money is to be spent on strengthening the work of NGOs working on reproductive health and family planning programmes.

The ceremony also marked the completion of 40 years of PFI's commitment to improving the health and well being of Indian families in unserved and underserved areas.

PFI had set up a high-level technical committee chaired by Prof PM Kulkarni of the Jawaharlal Nehru University to select the winners.

The committee had identified a set of 13 indicators on reproductive health, gender equity, family planning and housing amenities to measure the progress of the districts in the country.

Data from two rounds of District Level Household Surveys, DLHS 2002-04 and DLHS 2007-08, and the Census of 2001 and 2011 was analysed to measure the progress.

The combined performance of the districts was taken into account while selecting the States for the awards.

The indicators on which the performance of the districts has been judged were � access to improved sources of drinking water, households with toilet facility, women in the 20-24 year age group who were married before 18 years, women with birth order three and above, current users of spacing methods of family planning, unmet need for contraception, full antenatal care, safe delivery, postnatal care within 48 hours after delivery, full immunization of children (12 23 months), female literacy rate, ratio of females to males with primary education and child sex ratio.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chairman of PFI Governing Board, Mr Hari Shankar Singhania, said the award signified the pace of progress achieved over a period of time.

"It is well known that despite the relatively slow performance of reproductive and child health for the country as a whole, there are states, which have made significant strides in the field, and their achievements are comparable to the best in advanced societies.

"This demonstrates that given the leadership and will, such successes can be repeated in other regions," he added.

Earlier welcoming the gathering, the Executive Director of Population Foundation of India, Ms Poonam Muttreja, said: "The need to go well beyond contraception while addressing the population question is even more relevant today, given that family planning is a matter of women's rights and gender justice.

It is a matter of treating women with dignity, of advancing sexual and reproductive health, saving lives, and empowering women and communities" .

She stated that PFI is committed to building a healthy India where a woman has the choice to decide freely without any form of coercion when to marry, how many children to have and when, and is assured that she does not have to risk her life in bringing forth a new one.

Ahmadnagar recorded an increase from 20.4 per cent to 87 per cent of children fully immunized between DLHS2 to DLHS3, while Jajpur saw an increase from 35.1 per cent to 83.1 per cent on the same indicator.

In Firozpur women marrying before 18 years fell from 40.6 per cent in DLHS-2 to 16.3 per cent in DLHS-3.Varanasi saw a fall in the proportion of women with births of order three and above, from 52.8 per cent to 18.8 per cent for the same period.

Thoubal reduced the unmet need for contraceptives among women from 70.7 per cent in DLHS 2 to 23.4 per cent in DLHS-3 and women having safe delivery improved from 55 per cent to 84.4 per cent.

North Goa achieved full antenatal care for 93.7 per cent of its women, a straight jump from 46.7 per cent in DLHS 2, the highest figure among all Indian districts.

While child sex ratio fell further across the country between Census 2001 and 2011, Ferozpur bucked the trend and showed a 63 point increase in the proportion of girls raising the figure from 822 to 885 per 1000 boys.

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