Punjab, Haryana in top five states
14 STATES AND UTS WITH BIHAR, UTTARAKHAND, WEST BENGAL, MADHYA PARDESH AND MIZORAM BEING THE WORSTPERFORMING STATES HAVE BEEN PENALISED,
Punjab, Haryana, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Assam and Kerala have been ranked top five among states and Union Territories which performed well on various health system strengthening parameters of the National Health Mission.
Also, 14 states and UTs with Bihar, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pardesh and Mizoram being the worst-performing states have been penalised, which means they will lose out on NHM funds for performance linked conditionalities from the Centre, according to the Health System Strengthening Conditionality Report of states 2018-19.
The parameters on the basis of which the states were assessed include operationalisation of the health and wellness centres (HWCs), provisioning of mental health services in districts covered under the NHM programme, screening of 30 plus population non-communicable diseases and grading of primary health centres (both urban and rural), among others.
The incremental improvement as per the NITI Aayog ranking of states on ‘Performance on Health Outcomes’ is one of the major conditionalities and has been given the highest weightage.
Among the eight Empowered Action Group (EAG) states, four were incentivised, one state has earned no incentives or penalty and two states received penalty. All the three hill states – Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand – have received penalty due to non-fulfillment of conditionality.
Among the eight North-Eastern states, four could not meet the eligibility criteria. Of the remaining Assam, Tripura and Manipur earned incentives, the report stated. Of the 11 other states, nine were incentivised and two attracted penalty.
Performance-based incentives are a proven way to encourage productivity, increase efficiency and boost growth in any system. Conditionalities under the NHM in India were introduced with a similar rationale, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said.
“The aim is to instill a sense of healthy competition among the states and stimulate better health outcomes across the country. Keeping this aspect in mind, we have increased the NHM funds for performance linked conditionalities from 10 to 20 per cent of the resource envelope.
“The pools under NHM have been so designed that funds from high focus states do not go to better performing states and do not disturb the equity in fund distribution,” Vardhan said in his message in the report.
According to the report, for 2018-19, 20 states or UTs were able to earn incentives, two states or UTs earned neither incentive nor penalty, while remaining states received penalty.
Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Sikkim could not meet the minimum criteria of full immunisation of 75 per cent, therefore the progress made by the states was not considered for assessment and all the four states were penalised.