India will soon have a new programme for better menstrual health of adolescent girls, said health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad here on Monday.

“Adolescent pregnancies present themselves a great challenge for maternal health. The risk of maternal mortality and child mortality is considerably higher in case of teenage pregnancies. How best can we reach the adolescent girls with appropriate communication for appropriate health seeking behavior and how best can we provide adolescent friendly health services in the low resource settings, should be discussed,” he said at the inauguration of the Global Maternal Health Conference.

Specialists in maternal health are participating in the week-long event which is organised by the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), an organisation based on the public-private-partnership mode for training, research and policy development in the area of public health, and Engender Health, an international non-profit organisation working to improve sexual and reproductive health care.

At the event, Azad said that like most other developing countries, India also faces the shortage of specialists. To meet the shortage of manpower to deliver healthcare services, 8,624 MBBS doctors, 46,660 Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs), 26,793 staff nurses, 7692 Ayurvedi and Unani doctors and 3143 AYUSH paramedics have been recruited recently to strengthen the public health system.

“India also faces the shortage of specialists like gynecologists, anesthetists and pediatricians. We have recruited approximately 7 lakh community health workers (ASHAs), who are the link workers, into the system,” said Azad.

He also announced that the MBBS doctors in India are now being provided training to provide emergency services like anesthesia services and emergency obstetric care including the caesarian section operations.

The health ministry has also started Maternal Death Audits at the community level for a sound information base in the country. Some States have already started doing the audits, while others are in advanced stages of preparation, said Azad.