India has lot more to do in implementing MDGs: Jagat Prakash Nadda

BEIJING: India has emerged as one of the best performing nations in implementing the millennium development goals (MDG) set by the UN, but it has a lot to do to catch up to other BRICS countries, Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda said today.

Nadda said India has emerged as one of the best performing states vis-a-vis the MDGs as both Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) and Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) have declined much faster than the rest of the world.

"We started from a disadvantageous position and now we have the fastest declining indicators to show that mortality has reduced among the pregnant women and infant mortality rate has gone down much faster than the (rest of the) world," he told the Indian media here.

But at the same time India's parameters were still lower than other countries in the BRICS block - Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa - and has a lot to catch up, he said.

While many states in India performed well, the national average compared to the global average suffered because of poor performance of states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajastan, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

In view of this, 184 districts from these states have been identified after instructions from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and focused programmes are being implemented to improve their performances, he said.

Nadda was in Beijing to take part in the executive meeting of Partnership in Population and Development (PPD), an inter-governmental body promoting South-South cooperation -- a term historically used to describe the exchange of resources, and knowledge between developing countries.

India chaired the PPD last year and China was selected to head the organisation this year.

The MDGs are eight international development goals that were established following the Millennium Summit of the UN in 2000.

UN member states committed to help achieve the goals by 2015 which were eradication of poverty, reducing mortality, improving maternal health, education, gender equality, combating diseases like HIV and malaria, environmental sustainability and global partnership for development.

Nadda said the MMR has declined to 167 per lakh in India and the IMR to 40 for every 1,000 births. The IMR has dipped 6 per cent annually, which is faster than the global rate, he said.

The decline of the IMR in India is faster since 2008 due to improvement in field work, he said.

He also said India is teeming with adolescents, whose numbers have touched 253 million, and special programmes were being conducted for their welfare.

Eight All India Institute of Medical Sciences are coming up in different states under the Prime Minister Yojana and funds are being provided to upgrade state hospitals.