NEW DELHI/GUWAHATI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi made mention of the success story of the anti-malaria drive in the tea garden areas in the Jorhat district in Assam during his Mann Ki Baat programme today.
“Malaria has been a big challenge confronting humanity for four thousand years. Even at the time of independence, it was one of our biggest health challenges. Malaria ranks third among all infectious diseases that kill children between one month and five years of age. Today, I can say with satisfaction that the countrymen have collectively and strongly fought this challenge. The report of the World Health Organisation (WHO) mentions that in India, there has been an 80 percent reduction in the number of malaria cases and deaths due to it between 2015 and 2023. This is no mean achievement. The most heartening thing is that this success has been achieved through everyone’s participation. Everyone from every corner of India, from every district, became a part of this campaign. In the tea gardens of Jorhat in Assam, malaria used to be a major cause of concern for people until four years ago,” the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister further said, “But when the tea garden dwellers united to eradicate it, they started getting success to a great extent. In this effort, they have made full use of technology as well as social media. Similarly, the Kurukshetra district of Haryana has presented a very good model for controlling malaria. Here, public participation for monitoring malaria has been quite successful. Through street plays and radio, emphasis was laid on messages that helped a lot in reducing the breeding of mosquitoes. It is only through such efforts across the country that we have been able to take the war against malaria forward more rapidly.”
Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma wrote on his social media handle after the Prime Minister’s utterance on malaria, “The result of the ongoing campaign against malaria in the country is that there has been a 69 percent reduction in malaria cases in the past six years. Today, the example of the tea gardens of Jorhat in Assam presented by the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji will further increase the enthusiasm of the people for this campaign against malaria.”
Also Watch: