NEW DELHI: With more focus on the health needs of poor and common people in the country, the Centre is likely to announce a 25 per cent increase in the budget of National Health Mission (NHM). NHM caters to the needs of primary health systems, and has a budget allocation of Rs 19,500 crore. Officials said this might be increased to Rs 25,000 crore in this budget.
An official of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that as part of NHM, the emphasis will be on controlling diseases such as hypertension, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc. “The budgetary increase might be to fight these common diseases and to start screening programmes. The government may also announce the universal health scheme in this budget,” added the official.
The government is likely to start a population-based screening programme in 100 districts across the country soon after the budget. The official said these, including cancer, are non-communicable diseases and account for over 60 per cent of all mortality in India.
The screening programme for non-communicable diseases was launched during the UPA regime and was initiated in 100 districts as a pilot project.
“Now, the NDA government might give it a push in this budget. The ministry is expanding access to prevention and primary care services. It will most likely be launched in the first week of February,” added the official.
Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a scheme to provide pregnant women financial aid of `6,000 each for hospital admission, vaccination and nutritional food. This budget will also have an extra allocation to implement the programme successfully.