Chief minister Nitish Kumar with chief secretary Ashok Kumar Sinha at the meeting. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, April 6: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today chaired a meeting of the Human Development Mission where emphasis was laid on health and sanitation conditions for improving people’s lives.

Briefing mediapersons, chief secretary Ashok Kumar Sinha said: “To improve the health sector, the government will spend Rs 33,563 crore in the next five years. Another Rs 8,093 crore will be spent on providing drinking water and sanitation to the people in the same period.”

Today, the health and sanitation departments gave PowerPoint presentations on the basis of which indicators and targets for the sectors were fixed. Eight indicators were set for the health sector based on which targets have to be achieved in the next five and 10 years.

The indicators are infant mortality rate (IMR), maternal mortality rate, total fertility rate, malnutrition, anaemia, life expectancy, child marriage and sex ratio.

Nitish, chairing the fourth meeting of the Human Development Mission since its constitution in 2011, said the targets for sex ratio and child marriage could be achieved with the help of education and self-help groups. He also directed the officials to take action against persons who promote abortion after identification of the foetus.

The mission was formed to improve people’s lives on the basis of human development indicators. It is divided into seven sections — health, education, art and culture, public health and engineering, skill development, weaker sections and information and communication technology.

According to the targets fixed for the health sector, chief secretary Sinha said the IMR in Bihar has to be reduced from the existing 44 per 1,000 to 26 by 2017 and 20 by 2022. The target to improve sex ratio — 916 at present — has been set at 930 and 960 for 2017 and 2022 respectively. Similarly, 20.2 per cent of child marriage (women below the age of 18 years) has to be reduced to 14 per cent in 2017 and 10 per cent in 2022.