Getting Treatment for a Disease is Expensive, Staying Healthy is Inexpensive: PM

Mumbai: Describing neonatal and maternal mortality rates as a matter of grave concern, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said his government wanted to effectively use its 'Make in India' and 'Digital India' campaigns to ensure that healthcare reached the country's poorest of the poor.

Stressing upon cleanliness and hygiene, he said preventive care was the most important component of overall healthcare and also inexpensive.

"It is embarrassing to compare healthcare facilities in our country with those available abroad. Neonatal mortality is a matter of grave concern and so is maternal mortality.

"When a child falls into a borewell, families sit in front of TVs and the media gives a running commentary as gloom prevails everywhere, but we are hardly aware that hundreds of children die soon after being born. Many times, the mother and child both die for want of primary healthcare," he said after inaugurating the refurbished and partly newly built H N Reliance Foundation Hospital in Mumbai.

Addressing the gathering -- which included Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, his wife and Reliance Foundation chairperson Nita, actor Amitabh Bachchan, cricket icons Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar -- PM Modi said he wanted 'Make in India' and 'Digital India' initiatives as effective tools to ensure healthcare facilities reached the people.

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"Today, when diagnostic machines have replaced the doctor's expertise to a large extent, I want companies to come to India and manufacture expensive equipment needed for medical treatment, I want FDI to come into the sector. If hospitals like this are part of the network providing medical advice through telemedicine, quality healthcare can reach people living in remote areas for which Digital India can come in handy. I want the Digital India initiative to be effectively used for improving medicare and education," he said.

PM Modi, who is pursuing his 'Clean India' campaign, underscored the importance of hygiene and preventive care to stay healthy.

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"Preventive care is the most important component of healthcare. Getting treatment for a disease is expensive, staying healthy is inexpensive. If people get clean drinking water, they will not be afflicted by a number of diseases," he said.

Recalling how as Chief Minister of Gujarat he had developed the Sabarmati riverfront by rejuvenating the parched river with water from Narmada, he said it helped tackle the
drinking water problem in Ahmedabad city.

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"The water table rose and people started getting pure drinking water. Earlier, the poor of the city thronged hospitals due to the poor quality of the drinking water, but now, in the last 10 years, there has been no epidemic in Ahmedabad," he said.

Referring to a survey, the Prime Minister said the cause of untimely death of 40 per cent of the children in Pakistan was because they did not wash their hands before eating.

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"We are no different, we share the same legacy," he said and lauded the Madhya Pradesh government's initiative, when lakhs of school children created a new world record by collectively washing their hands on Global Handwashing Day.

"Time has come for the country to start from here," he said.

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The Prime Minister referred to his address to the United Nations General Assembly in which he had pitched for the observation of International Yoga Day and said holistic healthcare was the need of the present times.

"Today, the atmosphere is in favour of holistic healthcare...for transformation from stressful life to stress free life. It's time we start respecting life," he said.

The who's who from the world of films, sports and business attended the event, including Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Sachin Tendulkar, M S Dhoni as well as Anand Mahindra and Chanda Kochar. But conspicuous by his absence was Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray, who had been invited for the inauguration.