AP Govt committed to family welfare: Minister

Hyderabad, July 11 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Minister for Health and Family Welfare Sambhani Chandrasekhar said the state government was committed to establising a healthy society by taking up various family welfare schemes including population control, reduction in infant mortality rate and immunisation.

Speaking at the World Population Day organised by the Health Medical and Family Welfare Department, the minister said the state government had taken up various measures for the population control.

He said the state was the number one in the country in population control.

He said population control was very essential to ensure that fruits of development reached all sections of society. The total fertility rate had been reduced from 4.6 to 1.8, he said and added the government had been implementing family planning insurance scheme from 2005-06 for the family planning beneficiaries.

He said the government had appointed 55,400 women health volunteers to assist pregnant women for safe delivery by taking them to the hospitals.

He said as per the state population policy, the fund allocated for poluation control in the current year was Rs 22 crore. 1,570 Public Health Centres, 12,522 sub-centres, 167 Child Health Care centres, 1,280 Family Planning Service Centres and 192 Urban Family Welfare Centres had been providing family welfare services to all the eligible couple, he said.

Commissioner of Family Welfare and Secretary to Government Anil Punetha said the small family norms there widely accepted in the state because of the widespread awareness on the importance of family planning.

He said the state had been standing first in the country in terms of number of family planning operations conducted annullay since 1996. During the last decade about 77 lakh family planning operations were conducted and 7.67 lakh sterilisation operations were conducted last year, he said.

The Minister also presented awards and merit certificates for the medical staff in connection with the World Population Day.

UNI