Programs in News: Recently, the Prime Minister has launched the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM ABHIM) also known as Pradhan Mantri Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana (PMASBY). Recently, the Union Cabinet has approved the Prime Minister POSHAN scheme or PM-POSHAN for providing one hot cooked meal in Government and Government-aided schools.
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Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM ABHIM)
Recently, the Prime Minister has launched the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM ABHIM) also known as Pradhan Mantri Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana (PMASBY). Earlier, the plan was announced in the Budget 2021-22.- Now the mission has been formally launched with an outlay of ₹64,180 crores over a period of five years. The scheme is an addition to the National Health Mission and will work towards strengthening public health institutions and governance capacities.
- The mission’s objective is to “fill critical gaps in public health infrastructure, especially in critical care facilities and primary care, in both the urban and rural areas”.
- The PM ABHIM also aims to establish an IT-enabled disease surveillance system through a network of surveillance laboratories at block, district, regional and national levels.
- The scheme also aims to detect, investigate, prevent, and combat public health emergencies and disease outbreaks.
- Laboratory capacity under the National Centre for Disease Control, the Indian Council of Medical Research and national research institutions will be strengthened. Fifteen bio-safety level III labs will augment the capacity for infectious disease control and bio-security.
- Provide affordable, quality and accessible healthcare to all people and reduce out-of-pocket expenditures.
- Provide universal access to basic diagnostic and treatment services, and will take healthcare closer to the communities in both rural and urban areas.
- Covering almost all the domains of health.
PM Poshan Scheme:
Recently, the Union Cabinet has approved the Prime Minister POSHAN scheme or PM-POSHAN for providing one hot cooked meal in Government and Government-aided schools.
Ministry: Women and Child Development
Objective
- The scheme will replace the existing national programme for mid-day meal in schools or Mid-day Meal Scheme.
- The Mid-day Meal Scheme (under the Ministry of Education) is a centrally sponsored scheme which was launched in 1995.
- The scheme will cover 11.8 crore students enrolled in classes 1 to 8 in over 11.2 lakh schools across the country.
- Primary (1-5) and upper primary (6-8) schoolchildren are currently entitled to 100 grams and 150 grams of food grains per working day each, to ensure a minimum of 700 calories.
- It has been launched for an initial period of five years (2021-22 to 2025-26).
- The Centre will bear Rs. 54,061 crore of the total estimated cost of Rs 1.3 lakh crore, with the states paying Rs 31,733 crore (Rs 45,000 crore will be released by the Centre as subsidies for food grains).
The scheme will be extended to students studying in pre-primary or Balvatikas running in government and government aided primary schools.
- Balvatika is the pre-school that was started in government schools last year to include children aged younger than six years in the formal education system.
It does away with the restriction on the part of the Centre to provide funds only for wheat, rice, pulses and vegetables.
- Currently, if a state decides to add any component like milk or eggs to the menu, the Centre does not bear the additional cost. Now that restriction has been lifted.
Tithi Bhojan Concept: The concept of Tithi Bhojan will be encouraged extensively. Tithi Bhojan is a community participation programme in which people provide special food to children on special occasions/festivals.
The central government will ensure Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) from states to schools, which will use it to cover cooking costs.
- A social audit of the scheme has also been mandated for each school in each state to study the implementation of the scheme, which was so far not being done by all states.
- The Ministry of Education will also engage college and university students to monitor the scheme at a local level.
- Involvement of Farmers Producer Organizations (FPO) and Women Self Help Groups in implementation of the scheme will be encouraged.
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