Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi has announced a project under which American Indian physicians, under the umbrella of the Association of American Physicians of Indian origin, will spearhead the development of primary health care in rural India.
Ravi told Rediff.com that the project resulted from a Memorandum of Understanding signed between his ministry and the AAPI in January, which was consummated during his participation at the 24th annual convention of the Association of American Physicians of Indian origin in Atlanta last week.
Pilot projects, he said, would be launched soon in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar before the model was eventually broad-based to the other states.
Explaining the modalities of the project to the AAPI membership at the convention, Ravi said: 'The key component of the mission is the provision of a rudimentary health provider called Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) in each village.' Villages would be selected in 18 high-focus states, he said.
The minister said that over 173,000 ASHAs had already been selected, and training had begun with a view to starting community-level health initiatives this year.
'District plans have been finalized in a large number of districts,' the minister said. 'For the first time, 142,000 sub-centers across the country have been provided with untied funds to enable them to meet some of their requirements locally.'
Ravi said the partnership between AAPI and his ministry was poised to give a tremendous boost to primary health care in rural India. "I have
"They do not even want any publicity for it, but I am going to be the publicity arm for them because this project, once replicated all over the country, can be a great boon in addressing a dire need for rural health care in India," the minister said.
"This is going to be one of the major highlights of my ministry," Ravi said, adding, "I am going to look for excellence in other areas too among Indian Americans, like in engineering, but these AAPI projects in health can be a model for all of that."
Ravi said the government believed that health care, rural development and population stabilization were inextricably linked, and an important aspect was the war against HIV/AIDS epidemic, which would be intrinsic to the pilot project in Andhra.
"You know, Andhra Pradesh has the largest number of AIDS patients, and it is a very dangerous situation," the minister pointed out. "AAPI can help us alleviate this terrible situation," he added.
He said that achieving an acceptable standard of good health was the main objective of the National Rural Health Mission, launched by the United Progressive Alliance government in 2005. 'It seeks to provide universal access to equitable, affordable and quality healthcare to rural India,' he said.
The India Health Initiative between his ministry and AAPI will demonstrate the potential role that overseas Indian organizations can play in India's development, Ravi said, asking AAPI members to ensure that the pilot projects were replicated in other states as well.
