MMR in India declined with much higher rate than Global MMR says Health Minister J P Nadda

Union Minister for Health and  Family Welfare  Jagat Prakash Nadda chaired the ninth meeting of the Mission Steering Group (MSG) of the National Health Mission (NHM), in New Delhi yesterday. The Mission Steering Group is the highest policy-making and steering institution under the NHM, providing broad policy direction and governance for the health sector. 

Addressing the meeting, Mr Nadda commended the NHM  for its achievements and thanked the Steering Group for its role in ensuring the outputs of different initiatives and schemes. It was appraised that India has achieved the National Health Policy (NHP) target of Maternal Mortality Rate-MMR 100 deaths per one lakh live births. The Health Ministry added that between 1990 and 2020, MMR in India declined 83 per cent, which is much higher than the Global MMR decline. 69 per cent decline was observed in Infant Mortality Rate in the country during this period, while the Global IMR



decline was 55 per cent. More than 1.76 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs are operational in the country today. In the last 5 years, annual footfall at Ayushman Arogya Mandirs has increased from 13.49 crore in 2019-20 to over 121 crore in 2023-24. 

The number of Non-Communication Disease screenings increased from 10.94 crore in 2019-20 to 109.55 crore in 2023-24. It added that under the National Tuberculosis Elimination Program, an 18 percent reduction was observed in the incidence of TB from 2015 to 2023, which is more than double the global reduction.  21 per cent reduction was also observed in mortality due to TB.

During the meeting, the Health Minister also commended the role of ASHA workers in the healthcare system and stressed the need for their further empowerment and welfare through revised incentives for routine activities, and providing enhanced honorariums.