Budget 2024: Cervical Cancer Vaccination For Girls Aged 9 To 14 Years, Maternal And Child Care — Health Budget Highlights

Budget 2024: As anticipated, the healthcare budget mentioned preventive healthcare, vaccination programmes, and training for healthcare professionals by increasing the number of medical colleges. 

Budget 2024: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the interim budget for the financial year 2024-25 on February 1. The healthcare budget for the financial year 2024-25 focused on five areas: medical colleges, cervical cancer vaccination, maternal and child healthcare, immunisation, and Ayushman Bharat scheme. Experts had hoped that the union budget would focus on areas such as mental health, medical research, preventive healthcare, vaccination programmes, health infrastructure, and improved training for healthcare professionals. 

As anticipated, the healthcare budget mentioned preventive healthcare, vaccination programmes, and better training for healthcare professionals by increasing the number of medical colleges. 

The finance minister said that the Centre intends to establish more medical colleges by utilising existing hospital infrastructure under various departments, and that a committee will be set up to examine the issues and make relevant recommendations. 

An important highlight of this year's budget is that the central government will encourage cervical cancer vaccination for girls aged 9 to 14 years. According to a 2023 fact sheet by the WHO (World Health Organization) Information Centre on HPV (human papillomavirus) and Cancer, as many as 1,23,907 women in India are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year. As many as 77,348 women die from cervical cancer annually. Cervical cancer is the second most frequent cancer among women in India. 

The union budget also focused on maternal and child healthcare. The finance minister said that one comprehensive programme for both maternal and child healthcare will be implemented. 

In order to ensure improved nutrition delivery, early childhood care, and development, anganwadi centres will be upgraded under the "Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0" scheme. 

The government launched the U-WIN platform on January 11, 2024, as a platform for India's Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP). All Indian citizens will be able to register themselves for vaccination slots on this platform. The healthcare budget mentioned that this platform will be rolled out throughout the country to manage immunisation and ensure that the goals of Mission Indradhanush are achieved. The objectives of Mission Indradhanush include ensuring the vaccination of children and pregnant women throughout the country, and improving the vaccination coverage against measles and rubella. 

The Centre also aims to extend healthcare services covered under the Ayushman Bharat scheme to all anganwadi workers and helpers, and ASHA (accredited social health activist) workers.