NATIONAL DE WORMING DAY 10 FEB

      

National De-worming Day is observed on 10th February 2015.In this connection union ministry of Health & Family Welfare launched the National De-worming initiative at Jaipur, on 9^th Feb. 2015.

De-worming 

It is administering an antihelmintic drug to a human or animal to rid them of parasites, such as roundworm, hookworms, flukes and tapeworm. Mass deworming campaigns of school children have been used both as a preventive as well as a treatment method for helminthiasis which includes soil transmitted helminthiasis in children. Children can be treated by administering for example Mebendazole and Albendazole. The cost is relatively low. One tablet of Albendazole rids the child of parasitic worms which live in the child’s intestines and eat the nutrients the child needs for healthy mental and physical development. This tablet is safe for both infected and non-infected children and has a pleasant flavor.

Helminths

They are a group of parasites commonly referred to as worms and include schistosomes and soil-transmitted helminths. Such infections are among the most common infections in developing countries.While mild infections often go unnoticed, more severe worm infections can lead to abdominal pain, listlessness, iron-deficiency anemia, malnutrition, stunting, and wasting.. Infections can also cause cognitive impairment as well as tissue damage that may require corrective surgery

WHO recommendations

To reduce the worm burden, WHO recommends periodic drug treatment (De-worming) of all school-age children living in endemic areas. WHO is of the view that treating children for worms—which affect an estimated 600 million school-aged children worldwide—improves school attendance, health, and long-run productivity. Oral de-worming drugs are extremely effective at killing most varieties of worms with a single dose, at negligible cost.

So, de-worming treatment is not only highly effective and inexpensive, it is easy to administer through public schools and brings benefits to children years after treatment. With hundreds of millions of children still at risk of worm infection worldwide, providing free school-based de-worming treatment is an easy policy “win” for health, education, and development.

Government Initiatives

School Health program under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), provides for De-worming as per national guidelines on bi-annually supervised schedule. In the state of Bihar world’s largest school-based de-worming initiative was taken up earlier and also the Delhi government had conducted such campaigns. According to WHO estimates, nearly 24 crore children in the age group of 1-14 years are at risk of intestinal parasitic worm infestation.

The new De-worming Initiative of the Health Ministry aims to de-worm all pre-school and school-age children (enrolled and non-enrolled) between the ages of 1-19 years. In the first phase about 14 crore children across eleven States/UT of Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Tripura will be covered; while nearly 10 crore will be targeted in the second phase. In the first phase staring from the National De-worming Day on 10th February 2015, Albendazole tablets will be given to all targeted children; half tablet to 1-2 years children and one full tablet for 2-19 years. The children who are left out will be covered by a mop-up round to be carried out till 14th February 2015.

Union Health Minister has emphasized the need to target intestinal parasitic worms among the children to achieve status of being ‘Worm-free’ in India, after getting the ‘Polio-free’ status,. He has appealed to all MPs, MLAs, and local public representatives in addition to school teachers, ASHAs and Anganwadi workers for converging and supporting the Government in its mission to achieve Worm Free India.

This initiative needs to be coupled with improved sanitation, hygiene, and availability of safe drinking water for reducing worm load with active partnership and participation of the other ministries such as M/o Women and Child Development, M/O Human Resources Development, M/o Panchayati Raj and M/o Water and Sanitation. The deworming initiative is expected to help in achieving the aim of ‘Swachh Bharat’ as envisioned by the Prime Minister. 

This small, time tested initiative can have multiplier effect on various sectors like health, education, development at negligible cost.

AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH

Agriculture in general is location and agro-climatic zone specific.  Technologies used in other countries are quite often required to be tailored to the needs, for sometimes, even new developments are needed. The Institutes and Centres of All India Coordinated Research Projects (AICRP) on “Farm Implements & Machinery” are putting concerted efforts to increase the level of mechanization in the country. A new consortia research platform on “Farm Mechanization and Precision Farming” has been initiated in 12^th Plan to fast-track level of mechanization.

 

Research and Development achievements made on “Farm Mechanization and Precision Farming” during the past five years.

·         An android app (version 1.02) and an online web app has been developed to estimate top dressing dose of nitrogen fertilizer based on normalized difference index (NDVI) values obtained through green seeker sensor for rice and wheat crop.

·         Electromagnetic radiation profiles of mango have been studied to determine the most convenient methods of non-destructive defect detection. The information has been synthesized in the form of software for use in the non-destructive quality determination of mangoes.

·         Anthropometric data on Indian agricultural workers have been taken and relationships developed for design of appropriate tools for reduced drudgery in man-machine system and gender specific situations.

·         Rainfall patterns for Madhya Pradesh have been combined with soil characteristics to determine the rain harvesting options for different locations in the State.

·         Soil tool interactions have been studied in fully instrumented soil bins to study the tool wear and power requirements for efficient tool design.

·         Soyabean and its products have been characterized for their nutrition and consumption safety.

·         Cashew shells have been studied for their biochemical composition and combustion behavior with a view to design efficient energy generation system.

·         Vibrations transmitted from prime movers to operators have been characterized with a view to determine the methods of reducing vibration stresses on operators.

·         Physiology of fruits and vegetables under modified atmospheric conditions has been studied for selecting/designing suitable packaging systems.

·         Imaging techniques are being studied for precision application of inputs.

·         Animals physiology has been studied for enhancing the output of draught animals in agricultural operations.

·         Development of decision support software for tractor/machinery selection, design of irrigation system, etc.

 

            The Indian Council of Agricultural Research has taken initiative to adopt sophisticated farm equipment developed in other countries, to evaluate them under Indian conditions and to commercialize them by local manufactures for popularization under Indian conditions.

 

List of Practices/Equipment being propagated for modern farm equipment at par with advanced countries:

1. Laser guided land leveler
2. Pneumatic planters
3. Riding type rice transplanters
4. Sugarcane harvester
5. Multi-purpose hydraulic platform (developed by CIAE)
6. Automatic Litchi peeler
7. Cryogenic spice grinding system
8. Pomegranatae Aril extractor
9. Mechanized system for popping and decortications of Makhana seeds
10. Automatic Custard Apple pulper
11. Autoclavable microencapsulator

 

As has been informed in a written reply in Lok Sabha on 17^th March 2015 by Minister of State for Agriculture, Shri Mohanbhai Kundaria, for the advancement of Agriculture, Government uses Information Technology through Centrally sponsored scheme

(i)                 National eGovernance Plan in Agriculture (NeGP-A)

(ii)               Central Sector Scheme – Strengthening/Promoting Agricultural Informatics Systems.

 

Under both these Schemes, the funds are released to the State Governments or its designated Implementing agency for implementation of the Schemes. The schemes aim to effect computerization upto the Block level for dissemination of agriculture related information to the farming community through various ICT enabled delivery channels including SMSs, IVRs, Internet Kiosks, and Farmer’s Portal.

 

Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has instituted a number of awards for various stakeholders like individual scientists/institutions/State Agriculture Universities (SAUs)/Krishi Vikas Kendras (KVKs)/farmers etc. for their outstanding achievements.

 

 

ROTAVAC

*Dr. H. R. Keshavamurthy

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, launched the first indigenously developed and manufactured Rotavirus vaccine: 'Rotavac’, . This indigenously developed vaccine will boost efforts to combat infant mortality due to diarrhoea. 

Each year, diarrhoea caused by rotavirus results up to 10 lakh hospitalizations and kills nearly 80 thousand children under the age of 5 years. Besides causing emotional stress to the affected families, it also pushes many Indian families below the poverty line and also imposes significant economic burden on the country.

        What is Rotavirus infection?

Rotavirus is the most common cause of severe diarrheal (gastro enteritis) disease in infants and young children globally. Children under five years of age, especially those between 6 months and two years are most vulnerable to this disease. Rotaviruses are estimated to be responsible for approximately 5, 27,000 deaths each year, with more than 85% of these deaths occurring in low-income countries in Africa and Asia, and over two million are hospitalized each year with pronounced dehydration.

Among 43 countries participating in the Global Surveillance Network for rotavirus in 2009, 36% of hospitalizations for diarrhea among children aged below 5 years were caused by rotavirus infection. Rotavirus affects populations in all socio-economic groups and is equally prevalent in industrialized and developing countries. So differences in sanitation practices or water supply are not likely to affect the incidence of the infection.

Rotavirus

 The name Rotavirus comes from the characteristic wheel-like appearance of the virus when viewed by electron microscope (the name rotavirus is derived from the Latin word Rota, meaning "wheel”). Rota viral diarrhea is an infection of the stomach and bowel. It spreads when infected children do not maintain proper personal hygiene. Virus spreads by contact or airborne route. Most cases of gastroenteritis in children are mild and usually pass within 3-5 days without the need for treatment. However, young children, particularly those under two years of age, are at risk of dehydration. So it is very important that they drink plenty of fluids. In severe cases of gastroenteritis, where there has been significant fluid loss, hospital treatment may be required so that fluid can be replaced through drips.

   The first rotavirus infection tends to be the most severe because the body builds up immunity (resistance) to the virus afterwards. This is why these types of infections are extremely rare in adults. It is estimated that every child will have at least one rotavirus infection before the age of five. Most infections occur among children aged between three months and three years old.

Indian Scenario

In India, nationally representative data on the incidence of severe rota virus disease is lacking. However, studies have revealed that on an average 34% of all diarrheal hospitalizations are due to rota virus infection and the proportion of severe rota viral infection has not decreased in the last few years, similar to the global trend indicating that improved sanitation and use of anti-biotics have not been effective on rota virus. The prevalence of Rota virus in new born is high in India to the extent of 73%, but these infections are normally a- symptomatic and the likelihood of acquiring infection increases with the length of stay in the hospital.

While some studies in India have found no association between rotavirus infection and time of year, most have observed an increase in rotavirus-associated diarrhea during the winter months, October to February, throughout the country. The observed proportion of rotavirus cases occurring in the cooler season has ranged from 59% to 72%.

Treatment & Prevention

No specific treatment exists for rotavirus gastroenteritis, and repeat infections are common in children. Since 2006, vaccines are available for rotavirus infection. Prior to the availability of a vaccine, almost all children became infected with rotavirus by their third birthday. Repeat infections with different viral strains were possible. After several infections with different strains of the virus, children acquire immunity to rotavirus. Adults sometimes get infected, but the resulting illness is usually mild.

Vaccination

Use of vaccine should be part of a comprehensive diarrhoeal disease control strategy including, among other interventions, improvements of hygiene and sanitation, administration of oral rehydration solution and overall improved case management.

The new vaccine ROTAVAC has been developed under an innovative public-private partnership model. It involved partnership between the Ministry of Science and Technology, the institutions of the US Government, various government institutions and NGOs in India, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Funding by Government of India supported basic research in educational and scientific institutions in India. This was also supplemented by the support of U.S. Government institutions like the National Institute of Health. The Gates Foundation and Bharat Biotech India Limited contributed towards product development and testing. The successful launch of the first indigenously developed and produced vaccine today was the result of an extraordinary effort spread over the last 25 years. .

The Bharat Biotech India Limited that was involved in the development and production of the vaccine was selected in 1997-1998 by the India-U.S. Vaccine Action Programme and the standard government procedures. The company has given undertaking to keep the cost of the vaccine at US$ 1 per dose. This is the third such vaccine available globally against Rotavirus and, at the current prices, the cheapest and cost effective in terms of disability adjusted life year that satisfy the WHO/ UNICEF criteria for a cost- effective  intervention.

 ROTAVAC is an oral vaccine and is administered to infants in a three-dose course at the ages of 6, 10, and 14 weeks. It is given alongside routine immunizations in the UIP vaccines recommended at these ages.. Improving the overall performance of the immunization system is critical to the success of any vaccine introduction.

ROTAVAC represents the successful research and development of a novel vaccine from the developing world with global standards. The Prime Minister lauded this initiative as an example of India's capabilities for high-end research and development; manufacture of sophisticated pharmaceutical products in India; and, effective Public-Private-Partnership model for finding affordable solutions to societal challenges.

He hoped that the development of the rotavirus vaccine would inspire higher levels of research, development and manufacturing activities in India, not just in medical science, but also in other advanced areas of science and technology. On the launch occasion Prime Minister felt that solutions found in India would have great relevance to the rest of the world, especially the developing world.

 * Dr. H. R. Keshavamurthy is Director (M&C), Press Information Bureau, Kolkata.

Soil Health Card

                                                                                         

            ‘Soil Health Card’ Scheme has been introduced in current year to assist State Governments  to issue soil health cards to all farmers in the country. It is likely to develop an application software for the States  for online generation of soil health cards and  fertilizer recommendations. Dissemination of soil testing results through SMSs will be enabled.

 

The aims and objectives of the Scheme are:

 

i.  To issue soil health cards every 3 years, to all farmers of the country,

so as to provide a basis to address nutrient deficiencies in fertilization practices.

 

ii. To strengthen functioning of Soil Testing Laboratories (STLs) through

capacity building, involvement of agriculture students and effective linkage

 with Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) / State Agricultural Universities (SAUs).

 

iii. To diagnose soil fertility related constraints with standardized procedures for sampling uniformly across states and analysis and design taluqa / block level fertilizer recommendations in various districts.

 

iv. To develop and promote soil test based nutrient management in the districts for enhancing nutrient use efficiency.

 

v.  To build capacities of district and state level staff and of progressive farmers for promotion of nutrient management practices.

Rural Deveopment and budget 2015-16

    Notwithstanding growing urbanization in the last decade or two, India still live in Six lakh villages and rightly the 2015-16 general budget, the first full year budget of Prime Minister Narendra Modi rightly gives the due attention to Rural Development coupled with increased allocation to the farm sector. Several new initiatives have been launched by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the budget, which has gone unnoticed. The overall plan expenditure may look lower but one should not forget that with the implementation of 14^th finance commission recommendations, the states get clear 10 per cent more share of central pool of taxes at 42 per cent giving substantial hike in resources that are untied thereby helping states to design and provide more resources in those rural programmes that require more money. Jaitley has also provided significant resources for rural development. Apart from specific allocation of Rs 79,526 crore for rural development, several initiatives and allocations for infrastructure, railways and social schemes for poor will benefit rural folks as these investments are going to be for 60 per cent of 1.2 billion populations living in rural areas.

            As Jaitley himself said in his budget speech in Parliament on February 28 that with the economy turning around “dramatically” in the nine months of Modi government coupled with restoration of macro-economic stability, conditions have been created for stepping on the pedals for sustainable poverty elimination, job creation and durable double-digit economic growth, which meant more rural prosperity in the country.

 

            The first and foremost achievement of this government is success of Jan Dhan Yojana in a short period of 100 days. Through this financial inclusion programme 12.5 crore unbanked families, mostly in rural areas have been brought into the financial mainstream, thereby providing much needed launching pad for carrying out successfully various social programmes particularly for rural poor. This has led to launch of game changing JAM Trinity programme – Jan Dhan, Aadhar and Mobile—to implement direct transfer of benefits mostly to rural poor in a leakage-proof, well targeted and cashless manner. This is a significant development. In fact the leakage in social schemes has been so much that they have not had the desired result in the 6-7 decades of economic development since independence. As late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi himself said only 16 paise reached the beneficiary from every rupee spent. Rajiv Gandhi made this observation 25 years ago and it has not become any better, perhaps marginally better as leakage and corruption is widespread even today. JAM will ensure that the rural schemes are more effective, efficient and better targeted. The budget also puts in place a roadmap that aims at double-digit economic growth that is “feasible very soon”. greatly benefitting rural India through inclusive growth.  In this regard, financial inclusion is going to be a major tool and Jan Dhan Yojana is going to facilitate in a great measure.

 

            “In respect of social and economic indicators, for seven decades now, we have worked in terms of percentages and numbers of beneficiaries covered, it is quite obvious that incremental change is not going to take anywhere. We have to think in terms of a quantum jump,” Jaitley observed and announced several out-of-box ideas to transform rural India.

He unveiled a 13-point agenda that is to be implemented by 2022, the 75^th year of independence with a sizeable rural component. This comprise a roof for each family in India—that is six crore houses to be built of which 4 crore houses in rural areas with 24-hour power, clean drinking water, a toilet and road connectivity. Electrification of all the remaining 20,000 villages in the country by 2020. Connecting each of 1,78,000 unconnected habitations by all weather roads. This meant completing one lakh km of rorad currently under construction and building of additional one lakh km of road. Increasing farm productivity through irrigation and other measures. To bring on par North Eastern and Easter regions, which are at present lagging behind particularly in economic development.

Jaitley said in spite of the large increase in the devolution to states due to the recommendations of 14^th finance commission, adequate provision is being made for the schemes for the poor with allocation of Rs 68,968 crore to the education sector including mid-day meals, Rs 33,152 crore to the health sector and Rs 79,526 crore for Rural development activities including Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee programme, Rs 22,407 crore for housing, Rs 10,351 crore for women and child development, Rs 4,173 crore for Water Resources and Namami Ganga (cleaning of the river). A Substantial amount under these heads will go for the development of villages.

Apart from ensuring that farm credit is raised to Rs 8.5 lakh crore next fiscal year from Rs 8 lakh crore this financial year, the government committed to Rs 34, 699 crore for MGNREGA, which would be further stepped up  if needed to ensure that no one, who is poor in rural India is left without employment. MGNREGA will also help in benchmarking rural wages at a higher level and promote rural consumption that will help kick-starting economy to achieve 8-8.5  per cent growth in 2015-16 and then move on to double-digit growth.

 

            While the farmer is no longer in the clutches of the local trader and to increase kisan’s income, government proposed to create a unified national agriculture market. The problem at present is that India has thousands of mandis at present and as a result the prices of farm produce goes up by 15-20 per cent benefitting several middlemen thereby benefitting neitherthe poor farmer or consumer. To fund the unfunded, Jaitley proposed to create a Micro Units Development Refinance Agency (Mudra) Bank. This is a major attempt to generate employment in rural areas particularly in weaker sections of the society. There are 5.77 crore small business units, mostly individual proprietorship, which run small manufacturing, trading or service businesses. Sixty-two per cent are owned by scheduled castes, scheduled tribes or other backward communities. Mudra bank will have a corpuse of Rs 20,000 crore and credit guarantee corpus of Rs 3,000 crore. Mudra bank will refinance micro finance institutions through a Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana. Jaitley said these measures will greatly increase the confidence of young, educated or skilled workers, who would now be able to aspire to become first generation entrepreneurs; existing small businesses, too, will be ale to expand their activieties. “Just as we are banking theun-banked, we are also funding theun-funded,” he said.

 

            Working capital requirement of micro, small and medium enterprises, located substantially in rural areas will also get a boost with the establishment of Electronic Trade Receivables Discounting system soon. This will be help in financing of trade receivables of MSMEs, from corporate and other buyers, through multiple financiers. This should improve the liquidity in the MSME sector significantly. To increase access to the formal financial system government proposed to utilize the vast postal network with nearly 1,54,000 points of presence spread across villages of the country. “I hope that the Postal Department will make its proposed payments bank venture successful so that if contributes further to the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana.

 

            The budget also steps up allocation for rural health and social security. To promote jan Suraksha, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojna  launched to cover accidental risk of Rs 2 lakh for a premium of just Rs 12 per year. Similarly Atal pension yojana, which will provide defined pension, depending on the contribution and its period. Government will contribute 50 per cent of the benefciaries’ premium limited to Rs 1000 each year for five years in the new accounts to be opened in the next nine months. Government also proposed to create senior citizen welfare fund utilizing unclaimed deposits of about Rs 9,000 crore in Public Provident Fund and Employees Provident Fund.  The corpus will be utilized to subsidize the premium of vulnerable groups such as old age pensioners, BPL card-holders, small and marginal farmers and others. Details of the scheme will be announced later this month. This social security schemes will largely benefit rural population. Of the 10.5 crore senior citizens in the country, seventy per cent live in rural areas and a large number are in rural areas.

            The Budget also allocates Rs one lakh crore allocation to National Bank for Agricultgure and Rural development will have positive impact on the rural infrastructure. The long-term credit fund has been provided 15,000 crore in the next financial from Rs 5000 crore in the current financial year. This will help in pushing agro-based rural industries. Rural roads get Rs 25,000 crore allocation.

 

            The Modi government has quietly stepped rural development and agriculture in the budget under various heads, which has apparently gone unnoticed giving credence to the opposition criticism that this year’s budget is mainly for corporate and the middle class. In fact there are several initiatives and one has to read the fine print of the budget as the initiatives are spread across various departments and if they are implemented in right earnest, it will transform the rural India into a vibrant economy.

 

Indradhanush

 

Vaccination is a proven and one of the most cost effective child survival interventions. All countries in the world have an immunization programme to deliver selected vaccines to the targeted beneficiaries, specially focusing on pregnant women, infants and children, who are at a high risk of diseases preventable by vaccines. The number of vaccines in the immunization programmes varies from country to country; however, there are a few selected vaccines against Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Poliomyelitis, Measles, and Hepatitis-B which are part of immunization programmes in most of the countries in the world.

Though a proven cost-effective preventive intervention, the benefits of immunization is not reaching many children who are at the maximum risk of the diseases preventable by these vaccines. Majority of the children who do not receive these vaccines live in developing countries. Studies have revealed that children are left uncovered by the routine immunisation programme either because the parents and guardians are unaware of the drive, or there is some element of apprehension or fear due to vaccination. Both these can be effectively addressed through an awareness campaign which underlines the critical importance of vaccination, and removes any apprehension harboured by the parent or the guardian.

Indian Scenario

2.7 Crore children are born in India every year. Approximately 18.3 lakhs children die before their fifth birthday. It is the low income families who lose the most children to disease. India records 5 lakh child deaths annually due to vaccine preventable diseases. Despite high childhood mortality rates due to vaccine preventable diseases, 30 percent of Indian children miss the benefits of full immunization every year. That is, an estimated 89 lakhs children across the country that either get only a few vaccines or no vaccines at all. One out of every 3 children in India does not receive all vaccines that are available under UIP.  Five percent of children in urban areas and 8 percent in rural areas are unimmunized.

 The Government of India recognizes immunization as one of the most cost effective interventions to prevent child deaths. India’s Universal Immunization Programme is one of the largest public health interventions in the country with an extensive vaccine delivery system with 27000 vaccine storage units in 35 states across the country. 80% of vaccination takes place in the outreach sessions, held in thousands each year in more than 6 lakh villages and other urban belts.

Universal Immunisation Programme (U.I.P.)

It is one of the largest in the world in terms of quantities of vaccine used, the number of beneficiaries, the number of Immunisation session organised, the geographical spread and diversity of areas covered. The national policy of Immunisation of all children during the first year of life with DPT, OPV and BCG to complete the series of primary vaccination before reaching the age of one year was adopted in 1978 with the lunching of EPI to increase the Immunisation coverage in infancy to 80%. Universal Immunisation programme UIP was launched in 1985 in a phased manner. The measles vaccine was added in 1985 and in 1990 Vitamin A supplementation was added to the program.

The Vaccination Schedule under the UIP

1. BCG (Bacillus Calmette Guerin) 1 dose at Birth (upto 1 year if not given earlier)

2. DPT (Diphtheria, Pertussis and Tetanus Toxoid) 5 doses; Three primary doses at 6weeks,10weeks and 14 weeks and two booster doses at 16-24 months and 5 Years of age

3. OPV (Oral Polio Vaccine) 5 doses; 0 dose at birth, three primary doses at 6,10 and 14 weeks and one booster dose at 16-24 months of age

4. Hepatitis B vaccine 4 doses; 0 dose within 24 hours of birth and three doses at 6, 10 and 14 weeks of age.

5. Measles 2 doses; first dose at 9-12 months and second dose at 16-24months of age

6. TT (Tetanus Toxoid) 2 doses at 10 years and 16 years of age

7. TT – for pregnant woman two doses or one dose if previously vaccinated within 3 Year

8.  In addition, Japanese Encephalitis (JE vaccine) vaccine was introduced in 112 endemic districts in campaign mode in phased manner from 2006-10 and has now been incorporated under the Routine Immunisation Programme.

India expanded its immunization programme with the introduction of three new vaccines in 2014. There is an urgent need to ensure that the benefit of complete vaccination is provided to all children in the country.

Challenges

In spite of all positive changes, there are ongoing challenges and shortcoming in the programme. The coverage with vaccines in National Immunization Programme is suboptimal and there are inter- and intra-state variations in the coverage. There are wide variations in the proportion of partially immunized and unimmunized children within states and districts. Data recording and reporting is suboptimal and disease surveillance system desires improvement. It is critical to address these reasons and identify the districts where focused efforts, systematic immunization drive and additional resources will be required for reaching all children with all available life-saving vaccines.

The challenges faced in delivering lifesaving vaccines to the targeted beneficiaries need to be addressed from the existing knowledge and learning from the past. Though the preventive efforts from diseases were practiced in India, the reluctance, opposition and a slow acceptance of vaccination have been the characteristic of vaccination history in the country. The operational challenges keep the coverage inequitable in the country. The lessons from the past events have been analysed and interpreted to guide immunization efforts.

Mission Indradhanush

The result is the ‘Mission Indradhanush’ launched on 25th December, 2014 with an aim to cover all those children who are partially vaccinated or unvaccinated. ‘Mission Indradhanush’ is a nationwide initiative with a special focus on 201 high focus districts. These districts account for nearly 50% of the total partially vaccinated or unvaccinated children in the country. Mission Indradhanush will provide protection against seven life-threatening diseases (Diphtheria, Whooping Cough, Tetanus, Polio, Tuberculosis, Measles and Hepatitis B). In addition, vaccination against Japanese Encephalitis and Haemophilus influenza type B will be provided in selected districts of the country. Vaccination against tetanus will be provided to the pregnant women.

Between 2009-2013 immunisation coverage has increased from 61% to 65%, indicating only 1% increase in coverage every year. To accelerate the process of immunization by covering 5% and more children every year, the Mission Mode has been adopted to achieve target of full coverage by 2020. High-focus 201 districts will be taken up for implementation in the first phase. Of these, 82 districts are in just four states of UP, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and nearly 25% of the unvaccinated or partially vaccinated children of India are in these 82 districts of four states. Moreover, 297 will be targeted for the second phase. The Mission focuses on interventions to rapidly increase full immunization coverage of children by approximately 5% annually and to expand full immunization coverage from 65% in 2014 to at least 90% children in the next five years. Four special vaccination campaigns will be conducted between March and June 2015 and this will cover all children less than two years of age and pregnant women for Tetanus Toxoid vaccine. This immunization campaign will be conducted for a period of 7-10 days every month for four consecutive months.

Micro plans developed to make the Mission mode successful will draw on the lessons learned from the Polio eradication towards systems strengthening, vaccine cold chain management, regular surveillance and monitoring of the plans to reach each and every left out and uncovered child. The government has sought technical support from various external agencies like WHO, UNICEF and Rotary to achieve the goals of this programme.

Understandably, the implementation of vaccination programme and ensuring that the benefits of vaccines reach to each and every possible beneficiary is a challenging task.  Mission Indradhanush depicting seven colours of the rainbow, aims to cover all those children by 2020 who are either unvaccinated or are partially vaccinated against seven vaccine preventable diseases which include diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, measles and hepatitis B. The Mission Indradhanush initiative is a call for action by the Government of India to intensify efforts to expedite the full immunization coverage in the country. Full immunization will rescues lakhs of children from disease mortality and morbidity and is essential for social development

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)

    Skill and knowledge are the two driving forces of economic growth and social development for any country. Countries with higher level of skills fare better to cope with the challenges of emerging economies in the present day world.

            In any country, youth is primarily the focus for any program for skill development. Our country is better placed in this regard. We have a vast majority of population in the productive age group. This provides a great opportunity to India. It also poses a great challenge. Benefits will flow to our economy only if our  population, particularly the youth, is healthy, educated and properly skilled.

            India with its an unrivalled youth demographic, is definitely poised for a big boost in terms of socio-economic development.  We have 605 million people below the age of 25. They can act as agents of change, by being empowered with various employable skills which will enable them to make impact not only on their lives but also on the lives of other individuals.

The recently approved Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), is a flagship scheme for imparting skill training to youth, focussing on improved curricula, better pedagogy and  trained instructors. The training includes soft skills, personal grooming, behavioural change et al.

 

           The scheme is being implemented by the newly created Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship through the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). It will cover 24 lakh youths. The Skill training would be based on the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) and industry led standards. Under the scheme, a monetary reward is given to trainees on assessment and certification by third party assessment bodies. The average monetary reward is around Rs.8,000 per trainee.

            The skill training will be on the basis of demand assessed by the recently conducted skill gap studies by the NSDC for the period 2013-17. The central and state governments, industry and business houses will  be consulted for assessment of further demands. For this, a demand aggregator platform is also being launched. The target for skill development  will also take into account the  demands from various other flagship programs launched in recent times such as Make in India, Digital India, National Solar Mission and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

            The PMKVY, will primarily focus on the first time entrants to the labour market and target mainly drop outs from Class 10 and Class 12. The scheme will be implemented through NSDC training partners. At present, NSDC has 187 training partners in around 2,300 centres. In addition, central  and state government affiliated training providers are also to be roped in for imparting training under the scheme. All training providers will have to undergo a due diligence process, for being eligible under the scheme. Sector Skill Councils and the state governments are also to monitor skill training program under PMKVY.

 

            Under the scheme, a Skill Development Management System (SDMS), will be put in place to verify and record details of all training centres, quality of training and courses. Biometric system and video recording of the training process will also be ensured wherever possible. Trainees will also be required to give feedback which will be the key element for the evaluation of the effectiveness of the PMKVY scheme. A robust grievance redressal system will also be made operational to address grievances. Further,an online citizen portal will be put in place to disseminate information about the program.

 

            Out of the total outlay of Rs.1120 crore, on skill training of 14 lakh youth, special emphasis is being given to recognition of prior learning. An amount of Rs.220 crore is being provided for this purpose. Rs.67 crore has been earmarked for awareness generation and youth mobilisation. Mobilisation of youth is to be done through Skill Melas at the local level with the help of state governments, municipal bodies, pachayati raj institutions and community based organisations. Another Rs.67 crore has been provided, under the scheme on mentorship support and placement facilitation. An allocation of Rs.150 crores has been made for training of the youth from the North-East region.

 

            Skill and entrepreneurship development is one of the high priority areas of the present Government. The newly formed Ministry of Skill and Entrepreneurship Development, is to play a critical role in fulfilling the objectives of the ‘Make in India’ campaign, a major initiative to turn India into a major manufacturing hub. The Ministry is to play a pivotal role in creating a skilled workforce to meet the demands of growing economy in different sectors including the manufacturing sector.

 

            A new National Policy for Skill and Entrepreneurship Development has also emerged to cover the entire gamut of initiatives in this direction. The Policy is to lay a roadmap for boosting growth creating quality  manpower. It has set a target for skilling 500 million persons by the year 2022.

 

            The efforts in this direction, is being carried on a mission mode. The National Skill Development Mission, an umbrella body, has three institutions under it. The National Council on Skill Development-under the chairmanship of Prime Minister, is to give policy direction and review skill development efforts. The National Skill Development Coordination Board, under the chairmanship of Vice Chairman NITI Aayog is to enumerate strategies to implement the decisions of PM’s council. The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), a non-profit company, is to meet the skill training requirements of the labour market including the unorganised sector.                                                                                                                                 

 

            India has marked its presence as one of the fastest growing economies of the world. It is expected to rank amongst the world’s top three growth economies and amongst the top three manufacturing destinations by 2020. With the help of favourable demographic factors and sustained availability of quality workforce, our country is poised to make its imprint on global economy.

 

            The newly announced scheme, PMKVY, with its thrust on skill development to build human capital for future markets is sure to reap benefits for our economy. The new Policy and a Mission mode approach to deliver results will usher in a new era in the development of human resources and industry.