From Director's Desk

I am happy to reiterate the commitment of the Government of Uttar Pradesh in improving the health systems to provide good quality and affordable healthcare to all. NUHM being the integral part of NHM, it seeks to address health care needs of the urban population with the focus on urban poor, through accessibility of essential primary health care and outreach services by reducing their out of pocket expenses for treatment. This will be achieved by strengthening the existing health care service delivery system in 75 district headquarters and in cities/towns with a population of more than 50,000. The sub mission will target the urban slums and marginalised groups such as street vendors, homeless people, street children, rickshaw pullers and construction site workers. Since NUHM is additionality, the sub mission would endeavour to achieve the goal through converging with technical strategies of NHM and with various schemes relating to wider determinants of health like Nutrition, sanitation, drinking water, school education as implemented by other departments of the state.

As the National Rural Health Mission was designed to improve the rural health system, the National Urban Health Mission comes as a vehicle for strengthening the urban health system, with a special focus on the urban poor and the deprived such as the homeless, destitute, pavement dwellers and street children. More so because the urban poor have little access to essential primary health care services, often depending on unqualified private providers leading to heavy out of pocket expenses.

Adaptations and innovations under NUHM will be necessary to ensure that the growing urban population is also provided the benefits of an organized primary health care system by enabling and encouraging flexible, local and decentralized planning at the city/town level. The National Urban Health Mission aims to improve the health status of the urban population through a revamped primary public health care system, targeted outreach services and involvement of the urban community, especially the slum communities. It envisages a prominent collaborative role for urban local bodies in urban health, especially for health determinants like nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene.

Flexibility and innovation will be the underlying principle of the National Urban Health Mission’s design. We anticipate a fast learning curve from the initial innovations at the state and city level in order to rapidly provide quality and affordable healthcare for our urban population.