National Health Mission has enhanced workforce, curbed several public health concerns: Centre’s report to Cabinet

NHM boosts healthcare workforce, lowers maternal mortality, TB incidence, and contributes to India's public health improvements.

The National Health Mission (NHM) has significantly contributed to improving India’s public health, including lowering of the maternal mortality rate, incidence of tuberculosis (TB), and sickle cell anaemia.

It has also contributed to expanding human resources in the field while fostering an integrated response to health emergencies, the Central Government said on Wednesday (January 22, 2025) in its assessment report (2021-24) presented to the Union Cabinet on Wednesday (January 22, 2025).

Listing out the key achievements of the NHM in the past three years, the Central government in a release noted that there had been a significant increase in human resources within the healthcare sector.

“In FY 2021-22, NHM facilitated the engagement of 2.69 lakh additional healthcare workers, including general duty medical officers, specialists, staff nurses, AYUSH doctors, allied healthcare workers, and public health managers. Additionally, 90,740 community health officers (CHOs) were engaged. This number grew in subsequent years, with 4.21 lakh additional healthcare professionals engaged in FY 2022-23, including 1.29 lakh CHOs, and 5.23 lakh workers engaged in FY 2023-24, which included 1.38 lakh CHOs. These efforts have contributed significantly to improving healthcare delivery, especially at the grassroots level,’’ the report stated.

It further noted that under NHM, the Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) has declined by 83% since 1990, which is higher than the global decline of 45%. Similarly, the Under-5 Mortality Rate (U5MR) has decreased from 45 per 1,000 live births in 2014 to 32 in 2020, which demonstrates a higher decline of 75% in the reduction of mortality when compared with the global reduction of 60% since 1990. Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) has fallen from 39 per 1,000 live births in 2014 to 28 in 2020. Moreover, the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) decreased from 2.3 in 2015 to 2.0 in 2020, according to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5). These improvements indicate that India is on track to meet its U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets for maternal, child, and infant mortality well ahead of 2030.

The NHM has also been instrumental in the elimination and control of various diseases, including the incidence of TB (which has reduced from 237 per 1,00,000 population in 2015 to 195 in 2023, and the mortality rate has decreased from 28 to 22 in the same period), malaria (in 2021, cases and deaths declined by 13.28% and 3.22%, respectively, when compared with 2020).

Additionally, efforts to eliminate kala-azar have been successful, with 100% of endemic blocks achieving the target of less than one case per 10,000 population by the end of 2023. The Measles-Rubella Elimination Campaign under the Intensified Mission Indradhanush 5.0 vaccinated over 34.77 crore children, achieving 97.98% coverage, the release said.