Bihar Is The Only State To Provide Free HPV Vaccine To Adolescent Girls To Protect Them From Cervical Cancer: Health Minister

Patna: Bihar is the only state in the country which provides free HPV (Human Papillomavirus) vaccine to females to protect them from cervical cancer. It has been administered to over 6.78 lakh adolescent girls in the state. Incidentally, Telangana is planning to launch a statewide HPV vaccination programme around the end of February.

“We are proud to say that we are the only state to think about saving our girl child from cervical cancer by offering free HPV vaccine. Talking about vaccination, we have covered 95 per cent of our eligible population and are ranked among the top three states in the country,” Bihar health minister Mangal Pandey said.

He added that the state has continuously been at the first position on the Government of India’s DVDMS Central Dashboard for supply, distribution and management of medicines since September 2024. Pandey stressed these achievements in the legislative Assembly while replying to a debate on the departmental budget of Rs 21,270 crore, which was later passed with a voice vote. He pointed out that the state was spending over 6 per cent of its entire budget on the sector.

“One of the Opposition legislators talked about Bihar spending less than one per cent of its total budget on health. The Assembly is a serious place, and people should speak with responsibility and knowledge. The state’s entire budget is of Rs 3.47 lakh crore, of which more than Rs 21,000 crore will be spent on health. It is over 6 per cent of the total budgetary size of the state,” he added.

The health minister’s address followed speeches by various Opposition MLAs, who alleged the poor condition of health services across the state. The Opposition walked out mid-way as the health minister underscored the achievements in ensuring better medical facilities for all age-groups of the people of Bihar. It led to a fracas between him and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Alok Kumar Mehta.

“Development and their party (read RJD) cannot go together. I am talking about progress, and they are feeling bad about it,” Pandey said.

Speaking further, Pandey remembered that there was a time when people, while talking about Bihar’s position on various health-related parameters, searched for it at the bottom of the table of states. But now, they look for it at the top of the list in every sphere.

“The infant mortality rate (IMR) of Bihar, as per the Sample Registration System 2023 report, has declined to 23 for every 1000 live births in a year. It is two points less than the national average, which is 25. The Neonatal mortality rate (NMR) of newborns up to 28 days has declined to 18, which is better than the national average of 19. The mortality rate of children under five years of age has gone down to 27, which is two points less than the national average of 29,” the health minister said.

“We have provided Ayushman Bharat cards to 1.69 crore families out of the 1.79 crore eligible families in the state, meaning we have covered around 95 per cent of them. We are also at the top across the country in generating 5.26 crore tokens for scan and share under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM). The state has created a health record of 6.17 crore beneficiaries under ABDM and was awarded at the national level for the effective implementation of the scheme in government medical institutions,” Pandey added.

Talking about the treatment of Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) among the children, the health minister asserted that the state government has established the largest Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) at Muzaffarpur.

It has 100 beds and is a world-class facility that is not available in any other state in the country. The PICU has arrangements in which the parents or guardians of the ill child stay in an adjacent building and can monitor their child from there.

Further highlighting the progress made under the 20-year-rule of chief minister Nitish Kumar, the health minister reminded the House that there were nine medical colleges, including six government and three private, in Bihar during the 58-year reign of other parties in Bihar.

“The number of medical colleges has gone up to 27 now, with the establishment of 18 new medical colleges in the last two decades. We are now working to take them to 46 in the next three years,” Pandey said. Pandey also said that the government was now aiming to turn all district hospitals in the state into super speciality ones and informed the House that it was about to appoint over 14,000 nurses in various hospitals across the state.

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