From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore

Bangalore, Sep 23: The Integrated Management of Neonatal and Childhood Illness (IMCI) programme being implemented in 14 districts of Karnataka with UNICEF support for improving child health status is proposed to extended to the entire State from this year, Mission Director of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) S Selva Kumar said today.

Selva Kumar, who is also the Director of State Women and Child Development Department, was delivering a special address at the day-long Child Health cum Review workshop on ''Maternal and Child Health in Karnataka: Coming together to achieve Millennium Development Goals."

The IMCI programme is currently being implemented in 323 districts in the country, including 14 in the State. The 14 districts are: Raichur, Koppal, Bagalkot, Belgaum, Bellary, Bidar, Bijapur, Gulbarga, Chamarajanagar, Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri, Kodagu and Uttara Kannada.

With the support of UNICEF, Karnataka has undertaken a critical appraisal of IMCI in four select districts of Raichur, Gulbarga, Chamarajanagar and Kodagu to understand the field-level status of implementation and identify the gaps so as to further strengthen the implementation across the entire State, he said.

The NRHM Mission Director stressed the need for achieving the target of achieving total immunization. Pointing out that the 2009 figures revealed 78.4 per cent achievement in immunization of children, he said concerted efforts were necessary to ensure coverage even to the remaining 21.6 per cent of children at the earliest to stop their being exposed to preventable diseases. The active involvement, close cooperation and coordination between all health workers and staff at all levels was necessary to ensure total immunization at the appropriate time.

Selva Kumar underscored the need for sustained efforts to bring down infant and maternal mortality rates considerably and explained the various initiatives under NRHM. The infmant mortality rate (I ) had come down from 45 per 1000 children in 2007 to 41 in 2009. While it was a remarkable achievement if the I has really come down, he deplored the tendency among the authorities concerned in some districts to report lower rates to earn brownie points even as the ground reality was different.

''We will be cheating ourselves if proper data is not reported as it would give a faulty picture and result in skewed planning. It is the duty of all field-level and supervisory staff to ensure furnishing of accurate data," he said adding: ''Let us first strive to reduce I to below 25 per 1000 kids as per MDG."

B S Rama Prasad, Commissioner of State Health and Family Welfare Department, in his inaugural address, emphasized the need for a proper assessment of Karnataka’s standing at the national level in reducing infant and maternal mortality rates and also identify problems for taking necessary corrective measures.

Better coordination and close inter-departmental cooperation was necessary as the performance of Health Department was inter-linked to that of several other departments. The Health Department was also beset with human resource constraints, especially the lack of specialized doctors and trained medical staff in rural areas.

While the efforts to provide sufficient para-medical staff in all districts were by and large successful, refusal of specialized doctors to serve in rural areas was a big problem. Though the Government is trying its best to solve the problems, it was necessary to bring about a perceptible change in attitude and behavior to achieve the goal of health for all, he said.

Dr V D Palekar, Director of Health and Family Welfare, in his welcome address, gave an overview of the Department’s activities and explained the objectives of the workshop. Several leading doctors including Dr Shivanand, Director IGICH, Dr Suresh Joshi, Professor of IMHR, Jaipur, Dr Rajani Ved, NHRM Consultant, New Delhi, Dr Sanjiv Upadyaya, Unicef Health and Nutrition Specialist, Dr Fehmida Visnegarwala, IH Associate Professor, Bangalore and Dr P K Srinivasan, NRHM State Program Officer, participated in the day-long workshop.