 passion. But today we have witnessed how these young enthusiastic and energetic girls of Maharashtra have broken this barrier. Now we are going to present before you welcome message and a display of people live animation and what women want video. The captivating logo of Partners Forum 2018 is based on the famous Pippli Aplique art form from the state of Orissa in India. Which means together the six priority themes of every woman and every child. Different nationalities, different languages, different culture, but just one single unifying voice of all the women around the world. We will shortly hear what women want. There is a saying in Hindi, course, course, per Badle pani, char, course, per bani. Which means India is a multi-diverse country wherein the taste of water changes every 2.5 kilometers and dialect of language changes every 10 kilometers. And what remains unchanged is our unity in diversity. So, welcome to Diverse and incredible India. Tribe, religion, or ethnic shouldn't be a barrier to that. The women and the children in vulnerable situations in the world Require medical attention, security, and better political measures. We are all in the same boat, in the same boat, in the same boat, in the same boat, in the same boat. Together, citizen engagement brings solutions. Strongly believes in its rich ethos of Vasudev Kutumbakam, which means the whole world is like a family. Today, the diverse universe has come together to achieve SDG goals. Music has no barriers and it can bind the whole world. I now invite Ms. Ebelon Melissa, Ms. Tarana, and the little girl Zoe to sing 2018 Partners Forum Anthem. Ms. Ebelon is a young dynamic Norwegian Ethiopian singer and UNICEF National Ambassador to Ethiopia. Please welcome Ebelon, Tarana, and Zoe. Nation had said be the change that you want to see in the world. This anthem was crowdsourced from all over the world by actively involving youth of 10 to 24 age group. Fight the Honorable Prime Minister, Shree Narin Ramudi, and the esteemed dignitaries to kindly come to the stage and light the ceremonial lamp to begin this auspicious occasion. In India, we begin any auspicious occasion with the lighting of the lamp, which symbolizes the triumph of light of knowledge over the darkness of ignorance. We extend a very warm welcome to the Honorable Prime Minister of India, Shree Narin Ramudi. We extend a very hearty welcome to his Excellency, Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal, Mr. Upendra Yadav. Her Excellency, Ms. Kim Simplis Beirut, the First Lady of Belize, Honorable Shree J. P. Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare India, Honorable Ministers of State for Health and Family Welfare India, Honorable Shri Ashwini Kumar Chaubey, Honorable Shreemati Anupriya Padhe, Respected Ms. Gabriela Koevas Barron, President International Parliamentary Union, Respected Ms. Tikhala Itai, former President Afriyan. May I request the Honorable Prime Minister of India to kindly release a coffee table book titled, Proven Paths for Women's, Children's and Adolescence Health. This coffee table book is a compendium of best practices of India's national reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health initiators. It highlights way forward through Government of India's two flagship schemes, Aishman Bharat and Pradhan Mantri, Jan Aroge Yojana. I would now like to invite Mrs. Preeti Sudhan, Board Chair of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare India, for giving welcome address. A very good morning, our Honorable Prime Minister, Shreem Rindar Modi Ji, Shri Upendra Yadav Ji, Honorable Prime Minister of Nepal, Ms. Gabriela Barron, Honorable President, Inter-Parliamentary Union, Honorable Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Shreem Atta Ji, Mrs. Kim Simpis Baro, Honorable First Lady of Belize, Shri Chaube Ji, Honorable Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Shri Mati Patel Ji, Honorable Minister of State Health and Family Welfare, Ms. Tikhala Aite, Honorable President, Africa Youth and Adolescence Network, respected ministers from participating countries, country representatives and heads of development partner agencies, state representatives, our national and international partner organizations, experts, representatives from media, civil society, and academia, and all those who support efforts to deliver health, well-being, and development of women, children, and adolescents. On behalf of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, and the partnership for maternal, newborn, and child health, I welcome you all to India. It's my pleasure to have you all here today at the Partners Forum 2018. It's a privilege to have our Honorable Prime Minister, Shri Modi Ji, as our patron for the Partners Forum. Sir, it is with your visionary call for Beti Bachao Beti Parhow that we started our journey for empowerment of women on a life-cycle approach. Since then, there has been no looking back. The Partners Forum 2018 brings together 1,200 participants from over 85 countries dedicated to every woman, every child movement. It connects a galaxy of important policy makers, influencers from across the world under the leadership of our Honorable Prime Minister. I offer my salutations to this impressive gathering of leaders and experts that uphold the mission of healthy women, children, and adolescents in our countries. In the next two days, we will explore ample opportunities by sharing our diverse experiences, challenges, and bottlenecks to put forward not only a safe future for mothers, children, and adolescents, but we'll also steer pathways for health systems strengthening collaborative learning and discussions and exchange ideas to renew their commitment to realize the vision of this partnership. Partners Forum 2018 focuses on improving multi-sectoral action for results, sharing country solutions, and capturing the best practices and knowledge within and among the state, among the health, and the other related sectors. It also lays emphasis on the importance of people-centered accountability and brings forward the voices and lived realities of women, children, and adolescents through innovative programming and creative projects. The Forum will showcase the rigorously produced success factor studies, which will be presented as unique ideas implemented by 12 different countries across six regions of the world. Different campaigns and events have taken place, sir, as part of this forum, including social media campaign, parliamentary and ministerial conclaves, and media workshops for national and international journalists. Honorable Prime Minister of India, Excellencies from participating countries, ladies and gentlemen in the audience, I would conclude by extending my best wishes and assuring that we will make these deliberations fruitful with renewed interest for the health of women, children, and adolescents. My heartfelt thanks to the patron, our Honorable PM, dignitaries present to all the delegates and representatives once again and best wishes for the day ahead. Thank you, Mrs. Preeti Sudhan. May I now request Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare India, Shri J. P. Natta, to kindly give opening remarks. Honorable Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modiji, dignitaries on the dais, Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal, Excellency Upendra Yadavji, President of Inter-Parliamentary Union, Ms. Goprela Baran, First Lady of Belize, Ms. Kim Simplis Barrows, Shri Ashunikumar Chaubeji, the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, Shreemati Anupriya Patel, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, Shreemati Preeti Sudhan, Secretary of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, and also the Acting Board Chair of PMNCH, Ms. Tikhala Itai, Ministers from 25 countries, representatives from various organizations, partners representing more than 85 countries across the globe, friends, ladies and gentlemen. Let me begin with thanking Honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji for agreeing to be the patron and inaugurating the PMNCH Partners Forum 2018 today. I welcome on behalf of all of you Honorable Prime Minister for this occasion. It is my privilege and honor to welcome you all to India for this momentous meeting in this fair. The forum is a landmark in our collective journey where we have directed our best efforts towards improving the health and well-being of women, children, adolescents who form the pillar of any progressive and healthy nation. We, the global community, have gathered here to celebrate what we have achieved in realizing the vision and goal of helping women, newborns, children, and adolescents survive and thrive. On behalf of India, I am happy to share that under the dynamic leadership of our Honorable Prime Minister, our efforts are bearing fruits. We have witnessed an accelerated pace of reduction in maternal and child mortality that is much faster than the global average rate of decline and are poised to attain related SDG targets much before the target deadline. Not only this, but we are taking up new challenges with steady and assured steps. We are coming closer to realizing the dream of universal health coverage. The Aishman Bharat Yojna long-lived India scheme which epitomizes political commitment, vision, and guidance from our Honorable Prime Minister is already being hailed globally as a paradigm shift in healthcare delivery. It is a holistic scheme that covers all dimensions of healthcare, namely prevention, health protection and primary care through 150,000 health and wellness centers as well as inpatient care through PMJ, a public funded assurance scheme that provides care of up to 500,000 annually per family to 500 million people constituting about 40 percent of nation's population. We are also implementing other countrywide programs like PM's safe motherhood campaign and Mission Indra Dhanush and Intensified Mission Indra Dhanush for immunization. We believe in the power of partnerships and multiple stakeholders working in unison towards the attainment of common goals. The Government of India has taken this approach on priority. Honorable Prime Minister has envisioned the concept of aspirational districts wherein 117 lowest performing districts were identified to be taken up for holistic development and I'm very happy to inform the health to you that health and nutrition, wash, water, sanitation and hygiene, education are among the sectors that have been given the highest attention for improvement through a collaborative and multi-sectoral approach. India has also stared setting up a national nutrition mission with an aim of doubling the pace of improving nutritional status of mothers, children and adolescents through concerted actions between various departments and stakeholders. Over the next two days we are going to immerse ourselves in sharing the experiences of from various countries, partners, stakeholders and more importantly voices from the ground. We just heard what women want. Now the ball is in our court. It is our turn to deliver outcomes for the women, children and adolescents of the world. We have a lot of interesting sessions and formats lined out for discussion and I'm sure that all these will prove to be very useful for all of us. With these words, I extend my gratitude to Honorable Prime Minister for his blessings on this momentous occasion and welcome you all once again to the partners forum and wish everyone a great stay in New Delhi. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. I would like to invite the chairperson of the She Decides Global Movement and former president of AFRIAN, the African Youth and Adolescent Network, respected Ms. Dekala Itai to speak on the occasion. Prime Minister, Honorable Ministers, Representatives of respective different governments, my fellow young people and all the partners here present, Viva partners forum Viva and where we believe in that African province that says if you want to go quickly go alone but if you want to go far go together and here we are together from different countries, different nations and regions, different race, different age, different culture and religious beliefs but with one common vision to truly change the lives of every woman, every child and every adolescent but if we truly want to bring about that change we need to work together and that is the power of partnership. When we are gathered here I look back at my local communities in Malawi and I think about all the girls and all the needs at community level and I'm thinking we need to start connecting the dots. Let what is happening at local community levels shape what we do the next two days. I think about the journeys that I take in a local bus when I'm visiting all the different communities and I was thinking the power of partnership for me has been that journey in that local bus when I visited different young people and young girls in these different communities and I think when I look at this bus and I get in and I always see a diverse community in this bus but sometimes we don't talk to one another and I think with here and all the partners together we need to start talking to one another understanding who our partners are what are we doing how are we doing it and how do we work together effectively. The other thing I look at when I look at this bus when I get in is you know other tires pumped up enough are they aligned and we need to be pumped up enough and committed and be persistent and also ensure that we are aligned we harmonize efforts because one thing I've noticed is that we are partners doing things but sometimes in different ways but we need to start moving in the same direction because we have a common vision to meet the needs of every woman every child and every adolescence and the other thing is the driver those voices of those communities those young girls and those women those adolescents and children truly driving us to meet the needs that they need and I always thought that with partnerships we need to walk the talk and make sure that we harmonized with this common vision and in conclusion I want us all to drive in the same direction to get to that destiny where truly we see lives next generation of young leaders because in the next 10 20 years they will be leading the agenda so going forward I want to conclude on one thing and I'm going to count to three and I want to hear each and every single person in this room because each person matters we're going to say together we can are you ready thank you miss tecala it I I now invite respected miss Gabriella Cuevas Baron president international parliamentary union and chairperson mexican senate foreign relations committee to address this august gathering mr prime minister ministers parliamentarians excellencies distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen it gives me great pleasure to address the distinguished gathering on behalf of the interparliamentary union as a proud member of the every woman every child high-level stirring group I am glad to be here today with other champions for women's children's and adolescence health let me first thank p.m. NCH for the invitation I truly appreciate the opportunity to speak at the beginning of this very important forum to highlight the role of parliaments in accelerating progress on women's children's and adolescence health and the important work they are doing in this area significant progress have been achieved including in regions facing the greatest health challenges since year 2000 the maternal mortality ratio has declined by 37 percent and the under five mortality rate has dropped by 47 percent many lives were saved but this is not enough every day approximately 830 women still die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and child birth and in low and middle income countries complications from pregnancy and child birth are the leading cause of death among girls aged 15 to 19 in 2017 a lone and estimated 6.3 million children and young adolescents lost their lives mostly because of preventable or threatable infectious diseases and injuries greater progress is not only needed on the survive objective of the global strategy but also all equally important for women children and adolescents to thrive in transform societies women children and adolescents worldwide face challenges in accessing essential health services education and good nutrition and are victims of violence and discrimination it is alarming that at least 43 percent of children under five face full chances of optimal development that 200 million adolescents were not in secondary school in 2016 that between 2005 and 2016 one in five women and adolescents girls worldwide were subject to physical and or sexual violence by an intimate partner and we can go on as you know political will at the highest at the highest level is vital to build solid enabled environment to prioritize the needs and rights of the most vulnerable and marginalized especially women children and adolescents it is indeed the only way to ensure that health policies and laws are grounded into strong national institutions comprehensive legislation sufficient funding robust data for decision making as well as transparency and accountability and that's why the interparliamentary union is here that's why the parliamentarians voice decisions and actions are vital for this implementation it is not enough to reach an agreement at the at the international arena it is not enough to design the path through sdgs what is necessary what is our mandate as parliamentarians is to translate words into actions the numbers are clear but behind these numbers there are true people flesh and blood and we need to understand that while we are here trying to do something these girls these women these boys and adolescents are suffering and I really expecting for us to do something as parliamentarians we are responsible of all process of ratification of international instruments but also it is our duty to translate those commitments into national legislation into better and stronger institutions into real budget we cannot speak about priorities if they are not really and truly reflected into budget of course we need to work directly with governments we need to exercise our duty to oversight and of course one of the most important mandates is to be working together closer with the communities that we represent the only way to change the world is if we start from our own communities and that's why parliamentarians are important and are vital for this implementation and for ipu of course the partnership that we have with pmnch is very important and we only have a first step yesterday we had a parliamentary con club and I must say that we received very good interesting and mandatory output from the parliamentarians that came to this meeting but again this is the first step we're going to have our next assembly in april and we're going to dedicate a full morning three hours for a workshop we do not want more political statements we do not want more only words and resolutions we want to bring these resolutions and these commitments into real action what we learned from yesterday's meeting was very clear we can design the best strategies of course we need reliable data but what we really need here is the leadership is to take action is to go to the communities and change and transform these realities around the world we are 46 000 parliamentarians we need of course to do more in terms of gender representation and of course in jew representation we need to hear more voices from jew in parliaments and I would like to encourage you to help parliamentarians to reach the political arena but I'm sure that even with these challenges in parliaments 46 000 parliamentarians are perfectable capable of changing this world and that's why from ipu we are going directly with this partnership for implementation to translate these commitments into our national commitments into our national laws into national budget and of course into community actions I am really enthusiastic about this forum I'm sure that we are going to have not only the best outputs but we are going really to make a huge step forward to implement this agenda please accept my best wishes for successful deliberations thank you so much may I now request her excellency miss kim simply sparrow first lady of bellies and founder and director of the lifeline foundation to kindly address this august gathering it is a gentleman good morning mr prime minister morning it is a distinct honor and pleasure to join you this morning as we come together at the commencement of these two days of the liberation and the global strategy for women to children and adolescent health I have had the privilege of participating in meetings on the global strategy in my own region of Latin America and the Caribbean and so I welcome this opportunity to participate in this global meeting not only does this event fall within my capacities as blazes special envoy for women and children and chair of the spouses of caracum leaders action network but it also resonates with my personal convictions on the importance of investing in health and well-being of women children and adolescents the evidence has shown time and time again that healthy educated and empowered women are better able to raise healthy educated confident and resilient daughters and sons there is of course an inextricable link between poor health and poverty so indeed when women are supported and empowered to overcome the effects of poverty and poor health they can and will live full and productive lives and so will their children families and communities when the well-being of women is safeguarded everyone benefits optimizing the health and well-being of women children and adolescent must be seen as a public good priority must be placed on persons from poor and vulnerable families and careful attention must be made to ensure that all adolescents can access services and appropriate information no one must be left behind ensuring the health of women and children is very much about safeguarding fundamental rights in this case of small in the case of small developing countries such as Belize and those in the Caribbean sub-region it is fully recognized there is also a strong economic argument to be made if we are to realize our economic development goals we must ensure that all members of our societies are functioning at an optimal level we must therefore pay keen attention to women who make up half of our population and to children and adolescents who in some cases comprise of 60 percent we are just too small to afford to leave anyone behind and in that regard I have the distinct pleasure of sharing with you that the first ladies of the Caribbean have been hard at work over the past three years we have been doing our part to safeguard the rights of women children and adolescents in our region we have been working diligently on the every Caribbean woman every Caribbean child initiative the initiative is committed to addressing inequities through the implementation of the global strategy it provides us with a platform for advocacy and action to focus on key social determinants of health and that negatively influence the development of Caribbean countries hence we have focused on four areas HIV and AIDS particularly ending mother-to-child transmission as well as congenital syphilis adolescent pregnancy cervical cancer and gender-based violence so I'm very pleased to be here at this global interchange to share listen learn and be inspired to deepen and broaden the collective efforts of the spouses of Caracom leaders action network I look forward to the next two days ladies and gentlemen the needs of our women children and adolescents cannot be ignored the investment we make today in women's children's and adolescent health and well-being will help build peaceful sustainable and inclusive societies for future generations and so in closing let me urge that we all heed the call to action let us stand on behalf of our sisters and their children raising our voices and using our influence to advocate and to ensure that every woman every adolescent and every child can live a healthy and dignified life that every woman every adolescent and every child has the opportunity to realize their fullest potential and that every woman every adolescent and every child can make her fullest contribution to the development of her family her community her nation and to the world I thank you thank you her Excellency may I now request his Excellency Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal Mr. Upind Riyadhav to kindly address us his Excellency say Narendra Modiji Prime Minister of India his Excellency J.P. Nadda Minister of Health and Family Welfare Government of India dignities on the dyes ministers distinguished delegates ladies and gentlemen Barry good morning to you all it is a great pleasure and honor for me to participate in this important partners forum which over the years has become a unique constellation of the governments international organizations civil societies private sectors healthcare experts researchers and financing agencies together our mission is clear a mission to ensure good health and well-being of every woman child and and adolescents a mission to achieve thereby healthy and prosperous society we all know the status of maternal new world and child health determines ultimately the status of health system of a country I am pleased to share with this august gathering that under the millennium development goals framework Nepal made notable progress in realization of the goals related to child and maternal health we provided the mdg's target in reducing child mortality while we were nearly there is in reaching the target one maternal mortality today we continue to focus on the unfinished businesses of mdg's era now under the framework of sustainable development goals we have directed concentrated effort to address the major killers of the mothers new one and children however achieving the maternal and new one related as disease targets with equity is a tremendous challenge in Nepal in this noble endeavor we have a lot of expectations from the partnership forum like this for us this is an opportunity to share experiences learn from each other and galvanize the much needed international support excellencies ladies and gentlemen the constitution of Nepal ensures health as a fundamental human rights of the people policy and legal framework as well as service delivery mechanism has been devised accordingly in an effort to realize this constitutional vision when it comes to child and maternal health we have a robust safe motherhood and reproductive health act maternal new world and child health services have been included in the basic health service package and have been provided through all levels of health facilities free this requires a partnership approach across all levels of the government and among various sectors health in all policies the need of art and this approach has been increasingly being emphasized as a strategy to mobilize multi-sectoral action for health across the government and to increase policy requirements as a part of the institutional setup of this holistic approach we have constituted a multi-sectoral board under the public health service act while the shift from millennium development goal to sustainable development goals has allowed more opportunity for multi-sectoral approach it also requires change in the mindset innovative ways partnerships and governance not only at the government's level but also for civil society the private sector and the research community the fundamental importance of reliable timely and disaggregated data and statistics to monitor the equitable progress of maternal new born and child health indicators should not be ignored in addition other existing health system challenges like human resources for health infrastructure service delivery financing and logistic required multi-sectoral approach and systemic thinking as well the overall empowerment of women and girls integral to all dimension to inclusive and sustainable development goals in Nepal growth in the literacy rate of women their empowerment through various community based programs and gradual social and cultural transformation has allowed women to increasingly assist health services for themselves and their children which will eventually contribute in achieving the target of sg disease the government of Nepal is committed to achieving the universal health coverage for all the AMA program which provides the incentive for safe delivery the social health insurance program and other free health care programs are some examples of targeted interventions to address the financial barriers in assessing the health care for mother and children I would like to conclude here by thanking the ministry of health of the government of India and partnership for maternal new born and child health for organizing this forum I took forward to constructive valuation during the success in this session thank you for your kind attention thank you his excellency under the unprecedented visionary leadership of honorable prime minister of India Srinarendra Modi we all are witnessing the emergence of new India his powerful mantra of sub-kassad sub-kavikas has empowered and steered 1.2 billion Indians various paths breaking health related initiatives have been undertaken for affordable effective and equitable access to health care particularly by underprivileged and vulnerable which is honorable prime minister's deep commitment and also one of the UN SDGs may I request the honorable prime minister of India Srinarendra Modi to kindly address us guide us and show us the way forward distinguished dignitaries the guys delegates from India and abroad ladies and gentlemen namaste a very warm welcome to all the delegates from across the world to the partners forum 2018 it is only partnerships that will get us to our goals partnership between citizens partnership between communities partnerships between countries the sustainable development agenda is a reflection of this countries move beyond standalone efforts they committed to empowering communities improving health and education ending poverty and sparring boosting economic growth and ultimately leaving no one behind the health of mothers will determine the health of the children and the health of children will determine the health of our tomorrow we have gathered to discuss and deliberate ways to improve the health and well-being of mothers and children the outcomes of our discussions today will have a great impact on our tomorrow the partners forum vision is in the line with India's ancient wisdom of basu dayo kutum come the world is one family it also in line with my government philosophy means collective efforts and partnership for inclusive growth the partnership for maternal newborn and child health is a unique and effective platform we are not only making a case for better health we are also making an argument for faster growth at the world search is for new ways to ensure rapid growth ensuring good health of women is one of the best ways of doing so we have achieved a lot of progress in the last few years a lot eight remains to be done from bigger budget to better outcomes and from mindset change to monitoring there is a lot to be done the India story is one of hope hope that roadblocks can be overcome hope that behavioral change can be ensured hope that rapid progress can be achieved when the millennium development goals were agreed on India had one of the world's highest mortality rates for women and children with sustained momentum and a faster rate of decline during the last few years India is on course to attend the SDG targets for maternal and child health much ahead of the agreed date of 2030 India was one of the first countries to advocate focus attention on adolescence and implement an expensive health promotion and prevention program for adolescence our effort ensured that they get that due recognition in the global strategy for women's children's and adolescence health adopted in 2015 yet on areas to put them there meaning where women are honored divinity blossoms there I firmly believe that our nation's prosperous when its people and importantly the women and children are educated and are able to live independent and power and healthy lives I'm pleased to note that India's immunization program a subject close to my heart is being featured as a success story in this forum under mission in the Danish we reach 32.8 million children and 8.4 million pregnant women over the last three years we have also increased the numbers of vaccines under the universal immunization program from 7 to 12 our vacancies now cover life threatening disease like pneumonia and diarrhea friends when my government assumed office in 2014 we were losing more than 44,000 mothers annually during childbirth we launched the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Makrutva Abhyan to provide best possible care to mothers during pregnancy we called upon the doctors to place one day of service per month to this campaign under this campaign 16 million antenatal care checkups have been performed the country has 25 million newborns our robots facility based newborn care system which provides care to more than 1 million newborn babies through 794 state-of-the-art special newborn care units as serve as a successful model as a result of our interventions 840 additional lives of children under 5 are being saved each day in India as compared to four years back children's nutrition is being addressed through the potion of beyond this brings together various schemes and interventions working towards a common goal of malnutrition free India in order to improve the quality of life of children we are implementing rastriya bal swastha kairakram this has provided 800 million health screening checkups and free referral treatment to 20 million children in the last four years one thing that constantly worried us was the high out-of-pocket expenditure incurred by families to avail medical care we therefore launched the aushman bharat yodara aushman bharat has a two-fold strategy the first is the provision of a comprehensive primary care at a facility near the community including guidance on healthy lifestyle and yoga through the health and wellness centers the fit India and it right movements are also important part of our strategy for health and wellness the community will also be able to receive free training and care for common disease including hypertension diabetes and three common cancers of breast cervicals and oral the patients will receive free medicines and diagnostic support close to their homes we plan to start 150,000 such health and wellness centers by 2022 the other arm of aushman bharat is the pradhan mantri jan arogya yodana p.m. jai this provides cashless health insurance cover up to Rs. 500,000 per family per year covering 500 million citizens who are most poor and vulnerable this number is almost equal to the population of canada Mexico and the united states taken together we have already provided free treatment worth rupees 700 crores to 500,000 families under this scheme within 10 weeks of its launch today being global universal health coverage day I again state that we will continue to work toward providing universal health coverage to all with one million registered social health activists or Asha workers and 232,000 auxiliary nurse midwives we have a formidable force of women for frontline health workers they are the strength of our program India is a huge country some states and districts have performed at par with developed countries others have their work cut out I instructed my officials to identify 117 expression districts each such district has been interested to a team that works across sectors like education water and sanitation rural development with top most priority to health and nutrition we are working on women's centric schemes through other departments also till 2015 more than half of Indian women did not have access to clean fuel for cooking we change this with Ojwala Yojana and provided cleaner cooking options to 58 million women we have taken up Swachh Bharat mission on war footing to make India open defecation free by the year 2019 in the last four years sanitation coverage in rural areas has increased from 39 percent to 95 percent we all know the saying if you educate a man you educate an individual but if you educate a woman you educate an entire family we have translated that into a program that focuses on the girl child and on giving her the best quality of life and education in addition we have also devised a small deposit saving scheme for girls called with more than 12.6 million accounts upon this scheme is helping us secure the future of the girl child we have also introduced Pradhan Mantri Matru Bandana Yojana that is expected to benefit more than 50 million pregnant women and lecturing mothers this scheme's enable direct benefit transfer to their bank accounts to compensate for wage loss enable better nutrition and adequate rest before and after delivery we have also increased maternity leave to 26 weeks from Talbix at the earlier we are committed to increasing India's health spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2025 reaching to more than 100 billion US dollars this will mean an actual increase of 345 percent over the current share in just eight years we will continue to work for the betterment of people women children and youth will continue to remain at the heart of every policy program or initiative I would like to stress on the need for multi stakeholder partnership for achieving success in all our endeavors we are aware that effective healthcare especially for women and children is based organized through convergent action friends have been given to understand that over the next two days this forum will discuss 12 success stories from all over the world this is indeed an opportunity for a dialogue between countries to share what we can learn from each other India stands ready to support its fellow countries in the mark to achieving the development goals through skill and training programs provision of affordable medicines and vaccines knowledge transfer and exchange programs I will be keen to hear the outcomes of the ministerial country which has been designed to contribute to these discussions this forum has a vibrant platform offer us the right movement which would invigorate our commitment to survive thrive transform we have our task well laid out and we continue to work with utmost dedication and devotion to provide help for all India shall always stand together with all the partners in solidarity I call upon each one of you including those who have joined us virtually to embrace this induced period so that we are able to extend our support to the entire humanity let us join our hands together as an expression let's come forward let us join our hands together as an expression of our commitment towards this noble cause thank you thank you very much please be a part of this thank you sir as a mark of our partnership let's hold hand of each other in solidarity with the call to action for women children and adolescent health made by honorable prime minister Shunna Rindra Modi ji I request all of you all the participants present here to hold the hands of participants next to you in solidarity with the call to action to our solidarity that we stand together to achieve our goals as the delegates come together to hold hands the gesture is more than just symbolic it is also a strong reiteration of how collaborative strategies ensure equitable growth across economic geographic and social strata