The Centre proposes to merge the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and the yet-to-be-launched National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) in the 13th Five-Year-Plan period. The two ambitious Missions will be separate entities in the upcoming 12th Five-Year-Plan period, after the launch of the urban health mission, but subsequently merged.
In its proposals to the Planning Commission, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has said that the National Urban Health Mission would be taken up as a thrust area for the 12th Plan and launched as a separate mission for urban areas with focus on slums and urban poor. It will cover all cities and towns with a population of more than 50,000, broadly covering 779 cities and towns including seven mega cities including Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.
The budget allocation for the mission is envisaged to be Rs. 30,000 crore and the programme will be implemented by investing in health professionals, creating new and upgradation of existing infrastructure, and strengthening the existing health care service delivery system.
Principally, the NUHM will cover the entire urban areas irrespective of the dwelling status (including general population, listed and unlisted slums) but outreach services will be targeted for slum/slum like areas and other homeless people, street vendors, railway and bus station coolies, homeless people and street children, construction site workers who may be in slums or on sites. Inter-sectoral convergence will be planned between the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, Rajiv Awas Yojana and the NUHM.
Realising that the health care needs of the urban poor and vulnerable populations, the urban health mission will ensure adequate resources for addressing the health problems in urban areas and address the need-based city specific urban health care system to meet the diverse health needs of the urban population with focus on the urban poor and other vulnerable sections. The institutional mechanism and management systems will be in place to meet the health-related challenges of a rapidly growing urban population and join hands with community for a more proactive involvement in planning, implementation and monitoring of health activities.
At the primary care level, one Urban Primary Health Centre will be established for every 50-60,000. At the community level, outreach services will be provided to the urban poor slums with the help of Urban Social Health Activist (USHA) (200-500 households) and Mahila Aarogya Samiti (50-100 households). No sub-centres are proposed but communisation will be made possible through Mahila Aarogya Samiti and Rogi Kalyan Samiti while secondary and tertiary level services will be provided through public or empanelled private providers.
The National Rural Health Mission was launched in 2005 and is proposed to be extended by five years.
