The National Institute of Rural Development& Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR), Hyderabad and National Health Systems Resource Centre (NHSRC), New Delhi signed a memorandum of understanding at a virtual ceremony on 20th October 2022for working collaboratively on developing the capacity and skill of Panchayati Raj Institutions on health issues.
This agreement, entered into by Maj Gen (Prof.) Atul Kotwal, Executive Director, NHSRC and Dr G. Narendra Kumar, IAS, Director General, on behalf of respective organisations, will be initially for five years.
The successful collaboration serves as the first step towards a long and collaborative partnership in building healthy communities. Both organisations have identified the areas of common interest for cooperation in policy support, Capacity building training for PRI functionaries, research and best practices.
The key areas identified under this partnership specifically relate to policy support, capacity building of PRI functionaries, research and documentation.
The MoU was signed by Brig. Sanjay Baweja, Principal Administrative Officer NHSRC and Dr M Srikanth, Registrar and Director (Admin), NIRDPR.
The DG emphasised on increasing awareness among grassroots-level functionaries and convergence of various GoI programmes and state-specific schemes, such as the National Health Mission, to ensure that healthcare initiatives in rural areas are well grounded.He urged to look at health interventions from a poverty alleviation point of view with a focus on improving the quality of life in rural areas.
“High healthcare expense is the second-most important cause for people slipping into poverty. Though there is a need for affordable healthcare services in rural areas, PRIs lack the capability.
Developing those capacities is a challenging task. Panchayats should be enabled to develop a village health plan by the convergence of schemes and fund flow streams,” Dr G. Narendra Kumarsaid.
Stating that the main motto of NIRDPR is poverty alleviation and improving the quality of life in rural India, he observed that out-of-pocket expenses on healthcare are one of the major causes of poverty in rural India.
“In this context, developing the capacity, knowledge and skills of PRIs on different utilisation of health schemes, making them able to develop a village health plan and monitoring to strengthen the health systems are crucial to improve the quality of life of rural communities,” he said.
