CPCT Test 8
15 min30 WPM required430 words
Click on the passage and start typing to begin.
Public health infrastructure in Madhya Pradesh has been significantly expanded and strengthened over the past two decades through investment under the National Health Mission, state budget allocations, and various centrally sponsored schemes, though the state continues to face challenges in achieving health outcomes comparable to better-performing Indian states. The National Health Mission, which subsumed the earlier National Rural Health Mission and includes the National Urban Health Mission, provides funding for primary and secondary health infrastructure, human resources, medicines, and health systems strengthening activities in states across India, with Madhya Pradesh being a significant beneficiary given its large population and health burden. The primary health care infrastructure in rural Madhya Pradesh is organised in a three-tier structure — sub-health centres at the village cluster level, primary health centres at the block level, and community health centres at the tehsil level — supported by the secondary care of district hospitals and the tertiary care of medical college hospitals in larger cities. The ASHA, or Accredited Social Health Activist, programme, implemented under the National Health Mission, deploys a trained female community health worker in every village to serve as a link between the community and the health system, providing basic health services, health education, and facilitation of access to institutional care for pregnant women, newborns, sick children, and others with health needs. Madhya Pradesh has a cadre of over 78,000 ASHAs, who have been instrumental in improving rates of institutional delivery, childhood immunisation, and early detection and treatment of diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria. The Janani Suraksha Yojana and Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram provide financial incentives for institutional deliveries and free services to pregnant women and newborns in public health facilities, contributing to a significant increase in institutional delivery rates in the state. The Mukhyamantri Shivraj Singh Chouhan government introduced the Mukhyamantri Bal Hridaya Upchar Yojana and other targeted health schemes for specific population groups. Nutrition remains a critical challenge in Madhya Pradesh, which has among the highest rates of child undernutrition in the country; the Integrated Child Development Services, the Mid-Day Meal scheme, and the state's targeted nutrition interventions through anganwadis and schools seek to address this challenge. The Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana has been implemented in Madhya Pradesh as Ayushman Bharat — Niramayam, providing health insurance coverage of up to five lakh rupees per family per year for secondary and tertiary hospitalisation in empanelled public and private hospitals. The improvement of health outcomes in Madhya Pradesh requires sustained investment in infrastructure, human resources, medicines, and the social determinants of health including water supply, sanitation, nutrition, and education.