Women empowerment begins from the womb! Preventing sex selection and stopping sex selective elimination is the first step towards empowerment of women. The Government has enacted the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994 for prohibition of sex selection before or after conception and for prevention of misuse of pre-conception and pre-conception and pre-natal diagnostic techniques for sex determination.

Work on the socio economic aspects of enhancing the society’s understanding of the immense value of the girl child through our flagship initiative of Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao.

If a country aims to build a civilization where women are strong, equal, active and productive members of their society, ensuring quality and equitable health care services to women is critical. Recognizing this Ministry of Health implements several programmes for health of women following a life-cycle ‘continuum of care’ approach to ensure equal focus on various life stages of women, ranging from a spectrum of programmes for pregnant women, the neonates, infants, young children, adolescents, and family planning programmes for women in the reproductive age group. In addition to providing healthcare services, the public health departments also pave the way for economic empowerment of women by engaging women in positions ranging from village level Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) to health care providers such as Auxillary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) health care administrators and policy makers at State and National levels.

Maternity Care

For the pregnancy, every woman is entitled to quality antenatal, intra-natal and postnatal care services. Carrying forward this vision of Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA) has been launched to provide quality ante-natal care (ANC) to pregnant women on the 9th of every month (symbolizing nine months of pregnancy). To harness IT in reaching the most vulnerable and most inaccessible, the Ministry runs a Mother and Child Tracking System (MCTS) / Reproductive Child Health (RCH) portal and Kilkari mobile services which tracks and facilitates timely delivery of antenatal, postnatal care services to women and immunization services to children by the front line workers through proper line listing and also targeted age-specific messages and calls.

Shishu Suraksha

Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram (JSSK) entitles all pregnant women delivering in public health institutions to absolutely free and no-expense delivery including Caesarean section. The initiative stipulates free drugs, diagnostics, blood and diet, besides free transport from home to institution, between facilities in case of a referral and drop back home. LaQshya program – Labour room Quality improvement initiative for focused and targeted approach to strengthen key processes related to the labour rooms and maternity operation theatres.

Referral Units (FRUs), Maternal and Child Health wings, Obstetric Intensive Care Units and delivery points are established to provide basic and emergency obstetric care services. All these have resulted in the institutional delivery in the country rising to 78.9 per cent (NFHS-4 2015-16).

In a conscious effort to educate the parents and caregivers about good child rearing practices, a book titled “Journey of First 1000 Days” has been published by the Ministry of Health.

Healthy Adolescence

Considering the magnitude of various health problems and risk factors among adolescents, which may have impact on maternal and child health outcomes, Ministry of Health initiated Rashtriya Kishore Swasthya Karyakaram (RKSK) with the objectives to increase the awareness and access to information about adolescent health, provide counselling and health services and provide specific service such as sanitary napkins; iron folic acid supplementation etc. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is also implementing the Scheme for Promotion of Menstrual Hygiene among adolescent girls in the age group of 10-19 years primarily in rural areas, with specific reference to ensuring health for adolescent girls. 7516 Adolescent Friendly Health Clinics (AFHCs) have also been established at health care facilities to provide care and counselling services to adolescent.

Planned Pregnancy

Every woman has the right to plan her pregnancy. The family planning programme implemented by MoHFW provides a basket of choices to help parents decide, freely and responsibly, the number and the spacing of their children. MoHFW has introduced new contraceptives viz. Injectable contraceptive Medroxy Progesterone Acetate (MPA) – Antara and a non-hormonal, non-steroidal weekly Centchroman pill, Chhaya to meet the changing needs of people. The programme also focuses on Post Partum IUCD (PPIUCD), post-partum Sterilization and on Post Abortion IUCD (PAIUCD) to help women ensure adequate spacing between children.

Caring for the Girl Child

In order to provide specialized care to infants in case of complications, Special Newborn Care Units have been established at district level and New-born Stabilization Units and newborn care corners have been established at sub district level. It is a matter of immense pride that India has the world’s largest Universal Immunization Program. To ensure full immunization for children up to two years of age and pregnant women, a special initiative, Mission Indradhanush, was started in 2014 to immunize all the left out and missed children, and pregnant women. Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK), is an initiative to improve the overall quality of life of children through early detection of birth defects, diseases, deficiencies, development delays.

Drugs and Diagnostics

Ayushman Bharat brings with it several preventive and promotive services for women through the ‘Health & Wellness Centres’ (HWCs) which shall provide comprehensive primary care in addition to specialized mother and child care services. The aim is to establish about 1.5 lakh HWCs in a phased manner Mid-Level providers are being trained to provide comprehensive services at these centres ranging from reproductive and child health services to services for communicable and non-communicable disease. These centers will also provide employment to many women frontline health workers.

Government of India is striving to ensure comprehensive healthcare services to women across the country and these efforts have led to significant reduction in under-five and maternal mortality of India. Not only was India validated for Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus Elimination (MNTE) in April 2015, much ahead of the global target date of December 2015, India has accomplished the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for Maternal Mortality. The Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) has substantially dropped from by a massive 37 points. From 167/lakh live births in 2011-13, it is now 130/lakh live births! This is the highest since the last several decades. This means that we are now saving 12,000 more pregnant women, as compared to 2011-13.

With the steadfast support of the States, and our dedicated and committed frontline health workers India is confident to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for maternal health much before the timeline of 2030, paving the way for a healthy, empowered and bright future for the women of India.