This decision comes after the Union government refused to disburse over ₹600 crore NHM grant overdue to Kerala in 2023-2024.
Representative image (Wikimedia Commons)
Facing a severe fund crunch, Kerala has decided to finally give in to the Union government’s directive and add taglines to the names of health centers under the National Health Mission (NHM).
The Kerala government said in the order issued on Wednesday, 26 June that it is pleased to issue the “branding guidelines of Ayushman Bharat with immediate effect.”
This decision comes after the Union government refused to disburse the NHM grant due for the state in 2023-2024, pushing Kerala to reconsider its stance.
The move comes three days after the state urged the Centre to provide the overdue grant of over ₹600 crore and to sanction the first installment of the current financial year.
The move can be viewed as a blow to principles of federalism since health is a State subject.
Initially, Kerala had rejected the co-branding mandate, citing linguistic and cultural differences as the primary reasons for their opposition. The state had argued that the names did not resonate with the local population’s cultural and linguistic identity. Now, it has decided to add the names as taglines instead of renaming the existing centers.
However, with mounting financial pressures and the essential NHM grant at stake, Kerala had little choice but to comply with the Union government’s directive.
State health minister Veena George said the health centers known by their current names will continue to remain so and ‘Ayushman Arogya Mandir’ and ‘Arogyam Paramam Dhanam’ will be used as ‘tag lines’ to the existing names.
The health centers titled “Ayushman Arogya Mandir” will now have the tagline “Arogyam Paramam Dhanam” in Malayalam and English along with the name of all Sub Centres.
The order elaborated, “The new name should be given along with the vernacular name of these institutions. Names and tagline should be written in the same size. The name and mural should be given in Ethnic Brown 8589 as prescribed by the Central Government.”
It further said that the logos of Government of Kerala and Union Health Ministry should be included in the above names.
“The color of the outer walls of all centers shall be changed to Yellow metal 7920 as prescribed by the Central Government,” the order said while mentioning the kind of pictures that have to be painted on the walls of institutions. It includes illustrations related to maternal health care, health awareness, and yoga etc.
The State Mission Director of NHM, Thiruvananthapuram and the Director of Health Services have been instructed to take immediate steps to comply with the guidelines.
(Edited by Neena with inputs from Dileep V Kumar)
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