Crore remain unspent under the child healthcare scheme in J&K

The state of Jammu & Kashmir is left with a 90 crore corpus of funds-underutilized in the child healthcare scheme Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK). The amount remains unspent by the state government, as reported by a local daily.

A total of Rs 108.68 crore was allotted under RBSK scheme by the Government of India. Only a meager 16.91 crore was spent during last three years, giving an indication of the child public healthcare infrastructure in the state.

The scheme was launched with an initial purpose of screening children between 0-18 years of age including school children for 4 Ds for Defects at birth, Deficiencies, Diseases and Development delays including disability.

However, the ground level reality is different , with the state health department yet to construct the mandatory early Intervention Centers for the implementation in various districts. These centres were to include screening, diagnostic and intervention equipment.

The news has been confirmed in a statement released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, which states that the state government has failed to utilize Rs 91.77 crore since 2013. 2013 was the year when the scheme was first launched in J&K.  Further, funds to the tune of Rs 17.53 crore, Rs 44.59 crore and Rs 46.56 crore were allotted in 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 respectively.

The unutilized money includes Rs 16.38 crore under RBSK in 2013-14, Rs 30.47 crore in 2014-15 and Rs 29.98 crore in 2015-16 (as on June 2015 till second quarter), as reported by Rising Kashmir.

Since its launch nearly 20 lakh children have been screened under the scheme with 88568 kids till March 2014, Rs 15.27 lakh till March 2015 and Rs 4.14 lakh till June 2015.

Mission Director NHM, Dr Mohan Singh said: "I think there is some confusion in the health ministry data. Let me check the data and get back to you.