PSM Updates

·         The Kyoto Protocol was an agreement negotiated by many countries in December 1997 and came into force with Russia's ratification on February 16, 2005. The reason for the lengthy timespan between the terms of agreement being settled upon and the protocol being engaged was due to terms of Kyoto requiring at least 55 parties to ratify the agreement and for the total of those parties emissions to be at least 55% of global production of greenhouse gases.

The protocol was developed under the UNFCCC - the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Participating countries that have ratified (which is an important term that I'll clarify) the Kyoto Protocol have committed to cut emissions of not only carbon dioxide, but of also other greenhouse gases, being:

Methane (CH4)

Nitrous oxide (N2O)

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

Perfluorocarbons (PFCs)

Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)

If participant countries continue with emissions above the targets, then they are required to engage in emissions trading; i.e. buying "credits" from other participant countries who are able to exceed their reduction targets in order to offset.

The goals of Kyoto were to see participants collectively reducing emissions of greenhouse gases by 5.2% below the emission levels of 1990 by 2012.

While the 5.2% figure is a collective one, individual countries were assigned higher or lower targets and some countries were permitted increases. For example, the USA was expected to reduce emissions by 7%.

India and China, which have ratified the Kyoto protocol, are not obligated to reduce greenhouse gas production at the moment as they are developing countries; i.e. they weren't seen as the main culprits for emissions during the period of industrialization thought to be the cause for the global warming of today.

·         HUMAN POVERTY INDEX ( HPI) :

• HPI measures: Deprivation in basic dimensions of human development

o HPI is complimentary to Human Development index (HDI)

• Components of Hpi –I ( Used for developing countries )

o Probability at birth of not surviving to age 40

o Adult illiteracy Rate

o Un-weighted average or two indicators:

1) % Population not using an improved water source

2) % Children underweight- for-age

• Components of HPI – II ( Used for developed countries)

o Probability at birth of not surviving to age 60

o % adults (aged 16-65 year ) lacking functional literacy skills

o % People living below poverty line (BPL)

o Rate of ling term employment (12 month or more)

·         National Urban Health Mission

NUHM SHELVED FOR NOW - Urban poor healthcare in sick bay

India’s ambitious national programme to provide quality healthcare to the country’s urban poor — the National Urban Health Mission — has been shelved for the time being and will not be launched during the present 11th five-year plan.

Designed on the lines of the UPA government’s flagship National Rural Health Mission, NUHM was being prepared to provide accessible, affordable and reliable primary healthcare facilities to the 28 crore people living in urban slums in 429 cities and towns. The project had already received in-principle approval from the Planning Commission and was also cleared by the ministry’s Expenditure Finance Committee.

However, Union health secretary K Sujatha Rao said that NUHM would now be launched during the 12th plan. Rao told TOI, “We have so far focused on energizing India’s rural areas with NRHM. Since there are just two years left in the 11th plan (2007-2012), NUHM will be launched post-2012 now.” She added, “Over the next two years, we will sharpen NUHM’s execution plan and get its strategy right. Once both NUHM and NRHM run simultaneously, we can call it India’s Unified National Health Mission.”

At present, 60% of the pressure on urban hospitals is because of non-availability of health facilities and doctors in rural areas. In hospitals in state capitals, around 70% of patients are from rural areas, Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had told TOI some time ago.

NUHM's launch is being constantly deferred since 2008. It was initially to be launched to cover 35 cities in the first year with 429 cities by the end of the third year. All cities with a population above one lakh, state capitals and even district headquarters were to be brought under NUHM's purview.The urban mission was expected to specially benefit the 6.9-crore slum population. Over 285 million urban people in India account for 28% of the country's total population. It is expected to increase to 33% by 2026.

According to projections, out of the total population increase of 371 million during 2001-2026, the share of increase in the urban population is expected to be 182 million who suffered from serious health problems. As per the National Family Health Survey-III, the under-five mortality rate among urban poor at 72.7 is higher than the urban average of 51.9. More than 50% children are overweight and almost 60% of children miss total immunisation before completing one year.

NUHM had also planned to set aside at least 15% of its budget for street children and the homeless. Under the programme, the government was to put in place one Urban Social Health Activist (USHA) for every 2,000 population and one urban health centre for every 50,000 urban population. These centres were to have a minimum of one doctor, two nurses and 5 midwives. Around 25,000 USHAs were to be put in place by 2012, according to the original plan.

·         Daunting Numbers in leprosy

2.5 lakh new cases of leprosy recorded globally. India 1.37 lakh, Brazil 38,914, Indonesia 17,441

35%, or 48,000, of new leprosy cases in India have been detected in women

13,610 Indian children newly detected with leprosy

India records 54% of the world’s new leprosy cases every year, but the global disease burden has gone down from 8.5lakh in 1985 to 2.13lakh in 2008