Times of India
08 July 2010
Gandhinagar, India

Alarmed by the continued lag in human development index (HDI), especially due to gaps in health services, Gujarat government has decided to start online monitoring of rural families in order to find out existing lacunae in controlling high levels of infant mortality rate (IMR) and maternal mortality rate (MMR). Official sources say, Gujarat’s IMR is 50 per 1,000 infants born, while MMR is 160 every 1 lakh pregnant mothers.

Talking with mediapersons on Wednesday soon after the weekly Cabinet meeting, government spokesperson Jay Narayan Vyas said, “We believe, online monitoring will go a long way in improving HDI, which is chief minister Narendra Modi’s main thrust in the social sector.”The state’s online monitoring system, part of its e–Mamta project, has been jointly developed by Gujarat’s health and family welfare department and Government of India’s National Rural Health Mission. The Centre’s National Informatics Centre (NIC) has developed the software. “The project has been nationally acclaimed. It is not just first in India, such a project does not exist even in western countries,” Vyas declared.

“With the help of the software, data of 79.1 lakh rural families, involving 4.02 crore persons, will be monitored. Of these, data of 64.93 lakh families has already been entered. As for urban areas, data of 14.17 lakh families has been keyed in,” Vyas claimed, adding, “Online monitoring by the administration will go a long way in identifying pregnant women who do not receive prenatal treatment or infants who are not immunised.”

“Once the software is fully operational, every family will be informed in advance via SMS, or through the rural health worker, about the date on which the infant is required to get immunised,” Vyas said, even as evading questions on what is the HDI of Gujarat today visà–vis other states, or status of health compared to the rest of India.

“HDI is right now not the issue,” Vyas insisted, adding, “We are going in for online monitoring to improve HDI.” Asked how much has Gujarat’s HDI improved over the last one decade, Vyas said, “One can talk about it some time later.” Vyas began briefing newspersons, interestingly, on how HDI became the main focus of attention of Modi after he came to power in 2001.