Mosharraf rejects NIPORT report on health sector

He said the negative recommendations made by NIPORT in its ethnographic case study report suit the NGOS. "By showing the report to the developed countries and the donor agencies, the NGOs would pump huge chunk of money for their own fate instead of serving the rural people," he said.

He was addressing a seminar titled "Mother and newborn care practices in rural Bangladesh: Lessons from community level" at a city hotel.

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National Institute of Population Research and Training (NIPORT), Bureau of Health Education, DGHS, Information, Education and Motivation (IEM), DGFP, and Save the Children, USA jointly organised the seminar.

In one of its recommendations NIPORT suggested special steps for persuading the pregnant women, husbands and mothers-in-law about the need and importance of antenatal check-ups.

The minister said the government has already been working at field level in this respect. "So why this recommendation and in whose interest?" he questioned.

Brushing aside other recommendations of the NIPORT, he said overall progress of Bangladesh towards attaining Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 is satisfactory in most of the cases, especially in health and education sectors.

Quoting Nobel laureate Amartya Sen that "India should follow Bangladesh's experiences, the way it made progress in education and health services," Mosharraf said the present NIPORT report on the health sector is totally baseless.

Referring to the government's initiatives to reach health facilities to the door steps of the common people, he said 3,500 new posts have been created for doctors, to be appointed at union level soon.

Health Secretary Abu Mohammad Moniruzzaman Khan, Country Representative, Save the Children, USA, Edward Olney, Director General of NIPORT Lokman Hakim and Director General, Family Planning Directorate Professor Dr M Shahadat Hossain also spoke.

NIPORT Director (Research) Dr Ahmed Al Sabeer presented the keynote paper.