Roadmap for accelerating child survival and improving maternal health in India

The National Call to Action: Child Survival and Development, 2013 is a way forward to the commitment made by Govern-ment of India to accelerate the child survival initiative made so far along with improvement in maternal health component in the years to come. This initiative has been taken up by the government along with all its development partners under the umbrella of NRHM. A clear picture of the strategy to be taken up under this approach has been spelled out in a strategy document known as RMNCH+A (Reporoductive, Ma-ternal, Newborn, Child and Ado-lescent Health) strategy. The con-tinuum of care approach has been taken into account in this strategy document and this includes re-productive, maternal, neonatal and child health along with an additionally important adolescent health component. The document basically pro-vides the Health Secretaries, Mis-sion Directors and Programme Managers at National and State level a vision and understanding of the comprehensive approach to improving child survival and safe motherhood and attaining two Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5, to which India is sincerely committed. Integrated service delivery at various stages of life has been considered under this approach. All levels of care that should be made available to these life stages constitute an important component in this. This means both community and facility level care has been considered.