NEW DELHI, June 28, 2016
NITI Aayog strategy to monitor health
Amitabh Kant
Following directions from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the NITI Aayog is working on a strategy to put in place a tracking system for monitoring health parameters of target beneficiaries under the National Nutrition Mission on a real-time basis.
The tracking system is likely to be Aadhaar-linked, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant told reporters after a meeting on Monday with States and Chairman, Tata Trusts, Ratan Tata, on the Mission.
“There are multiple programmes under various ministries aimed at addressing the multitude of the related issues of gender discrimination, infections, diseases, food fortification, education opportunities, sanitation etc, all of which affect stunting and under-nutrition in children below the age of five, including the unborn … the Centre’s effort has been to converge the schemes and now the Prime Minister wants that at the district, block and, if possible, at the village level, the healthcare parameters of target beneficiaries, the mothers and the children, can be monitored on a real-time basis using Aadhaar,” Mr. Kant said.
He said the Centre was also working out policy measures and a strategy to converge the various schemes that impacted malnutrition. The outcomes at the grass root levels that should be monitored in the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare would also be finalised.
NITI Aayog Member Bibek Debroy said the challenge was and the target should be to identify individual households or individuals for the purpose of monitoring the outcomes. At present, nutrition data was available on a sample basis rather than by censuses.
Mr. Tata was invited to the interaction to draw on the experience of the Tata Trusts that had executed similar pilots in eight districts. “Mr. Tata is the ambassador of the challenge of nutrition for India,” he said.
Officials of the Ministries of Women and Child Development and Health and Family Welfare also participated.