Dr. Ramadoss meets Swedish Health Minister in Stockholm

New Delhi, Nov 20 : Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Anbumani Ramadoss met Goran Hagglund, Minister for Health and Social Affairs of Sweden at Stockholm, today.

Hagglund organised a lunch in honour of the visiting Indian Health Minister. During the lunch-on meeting both the Ministers discussed various issues pertaining to health sector for mutual cooperation and exchange of technical know-how in the field.

Later in the evening a dinner was hosted by Maria Larsson, Minister for Elderly Care and Public Health, Government of Sweden in honour of Dr. Ramadoss.

During the meetings the ongoing programmes under Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) assistance in India were discussed.

With reference to developing Inter-Institutional Collaboration between Institutions in India and Sweden for improving Midwifery and Maternal Health Services in India, Dr. Ramadoss thanked the Swedish Government for collaborating with the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, the Academy of nursing studies (ANS) Hyderabad, the White Ribbon Alliance of India (WRAI), CEDPA, the Trained Nurses Association of India (TNAI) and the Society of Midwives of India (SOMI).

He also appreciated the fact of imparting training as a part of the institutional strengthening to various officers from central and State Government dealing with maternal health and midwives from nursing schools and colleges in Sweden. The Swedish partners are the Karolinska Institute and the Swedish Midwifery Association in this regard.

Another programme under SIDA is Young people's Health and Development Project in India. The programme aims to increase access to comprehensive abortion care. The overall goal of the project is to increase access to legal, safe and comprehensive abortion services, which includes post-abortion family planning services, in the public health system, focusing on the rural poor.

Reproductive and Child Health Rights are also covered under SIDA. Under this programme, Community groups at village and Panchayat levels are strengthened to generate demand and ensure that reproductive and child health services reach the target groups.

The project will ensure that sustainable institutional linkages are formed between the various key stakeholders along with an enabling policy environment, and that the network is firmed up in terms of structure, functioning and capacity.

SIDA also provide support for the eight northeast states in India for HIV/AIDS intervention is provided through UNAIDS India Country Office. UNAIDS will facilitate the coordination between different UN agencies and the National AIDS Control Organization, NACO to provide a comprehensive support to address the complex issues in the Northeast of India.

The synergic effect of the various strategies and activities is expected to build the northeast regional capacity to address HIV/AIDS issues, increase the geographical reach of HIV services, enhance the quality of service delivery and reduce the risk and impact of the HIV epidemic in the region.

ANI