Stresses on need to conduct mid-term survey, providing fortified food
Leh : The Governor of Ladakh, RK Mathur, reviewed the findings of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-5 for the year 2019-20 at Raj Niwas today. Principal Secretary, Dr Pawan Kotwal; Commissioner Secretary, Padma Angmo; Additional Health Secretary, Iftikhar Ahmad Chowdhary; Director, Social Welfare Department, Kunzes Angmo and Director, School Education, Dr Safdar Ali attended the meeting.
LG Mathur expressed his concern over some of the findings of the NFHS-5 survey. He inquired about various health concerns in Leh from Director Health Services, Dr Motup Dorje. He suggested that International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) may be engaged by the Health Department to conduct a mid-term survey to study all the heads under NFHS and to find the health issues faced by the people of Ladakh.
LG Mathur stressed on the need to maintain a single database on births, deaths and families instead of different databases created by various departments. He suggested that Education Department may strive for 100 per cent enrolment of students in schools with help from elected representatives and Village Education Committees (VECs). He further suggested that Education Department distribute cotton sanitary pads through auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs) and also provide incinerators to dispose of the used sanitary pads in all the schools and communities in Ladakh.
He suggested that Health Department may conduct a study on the causes of neonatal deaths in Kargil and the way forward to tackle the deaths. Terming high child mortality as unacceptable, LG Mathur suggested that the target should be to bring down the mortality rate. He also directed providing mammography machines at SNM Hospital in Leh and District Hospital in Kargil to detect breast cancer among women.
Speaking on the high prevalence of anaemia among children and adults, LG Mathur emphasised on the need to provide fortified food to children and adults. He also suggested engaging a specialist nutritionist to suggest the fortified supplements, such as fortified barley, etc. He also stressed on the need to fortify the staple food ordinarily eaten by the people.
LG Mathur emphasised on expanding the components under Ayushman Bharat- School Health and Wellness Programme (AB-SHWP) in entire Ladakh and not just to schools. He stressed on the need to use information, education and communication (IEC) materials through mediums such as radio, TV and social media to raise awareness among people on HIV/AIDS, different lifestyle-related diseases, causes of diarrhoea among children, problems arising due to high consumption of salt and provide information on cervical/breast/oral cancer, caesarean births, etc.
Earlier, Additional Secretary Health, Dr Iftakhar, gave a presentation on the methodology used in conducting the NFHS survey and its key indicators; key indicators of the survey conducted by the Health Department; district-level trend analysis of key nutrition-related outcomes, determinants and intervention coverage indicators of NFHS-5, the status of nutrition outcomes in Ladakh, recommendations by NITI Aayog and interventions of different departments under different programmes.
