Harsh Vardhan seeks Hasina's support

India’s Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has sought Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s support for his new role in New Delhi.

He said joining forces together “the highest standards of health” could be achieved not only for Bangladesh and India, but for the entire region.

Vardhan was speaking in Dhaka at the inauguration of the WHO Southeast Asia region’s health ministers’ meeting on Tuesday.

Hasina inaugurated the annual event of the 11 regional countries.

Vardhan, a doctor by training, gave a broad perspective of health in India and the region as a whole and sought Hasina’s support in his new assignment.

He assumed the office of India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in May when the BJP came to power.

“In this new role, I seek your (Sheikh Hasina) valuable support in traversing a path where we can attain the highest standards of health not only for our countries but for the entire region and for the entire League of Nations,” he said.

He said the Indian philosophy “teaches us that the whole world is our family”.

“I can assure you that we would strive to stay close to this philosophy in all our actions and deeds at a regional and global level.”

He said he had a “strong faith in the Power of Belief”.

“In the mid 1990s, as the Health Minister of the state of Delhi in India, I had the privilege to be one of the architects and initiator of the Polio eradication campaign in India.

“At that time, no one really believed that it was possible to make India polio-free,” he said.

So the current polio-free status in India today signifies the “Power of Belief”.

“It has also given us new hope, new energy, new enthusiasm and new vision to take on even greater health challenges,” Vardhan said.

As non-communicable diseases like cancer, heart disease appear as major killers of people in this region, he said “health in all policies” should be adopted to tackle this menace.

He also stressed on eliminating vector-borne diseases from the South-East Asia region which is home to almost all mosquito-borne diseases.

The health ministers on Tuesday would adopt a ‘Dhaka Declaration’ for collective efforts to eliminate the vector-borne diseases after the meeting.

Vardhan said India would “fully endorse the Draft Dhaka Declaration”.

“Let us pledge to work together, with active support from WHO, to tackle this malady,” he said.

Simple mantra of success

“We need to invest more resources into our health system and get more value for our money. We need to improve access to essential and critical medicines,” Vardhan said.

“We must use the Power of Evidence, technology and effective communication.

“We must provide health assurance to our people through an assured package of preventive and positive health services, diagnostics and medicines,” he said as his ‘simple’ mantra of success.

The minister also stressed on promoting traditional medicines and ancient healing systems like yoga.

Community participation

He said his mantra for success was also “to find a way to convert health issues into a social and community movement”.

“In my personal experience I have found tremendous value in involving adolescents and youth to communicate and disseminate messages of positive health,” he said based on his own experience.

“It is the power of community participation and partnership that can empower us to achieve what we seek to achieve.

“It can bring an end to preventable deaths, including child and maternal deaths,” he said, calling all South-east Asian (SEARO) countries to work together “to make a difference”.

Bangladesh, Bhutan, North Korea, India, Indonesia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste are the members of the SEARO.