Sobhapati Samom
IMPHAL, May 15 – Three Manipur nurses were honoured with National Florence Nightingle Awards 2011 along with 32 other nursing personnel of the country on the International Nurses Day on Thursday. The President of India Pratibha Devisingh Patil presented the awards at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi, Manipur Information Centre, Delhi said in a release.
The three awarded State nurses are Konsam Satrabati Devi, Vungkhoniang and Thongam Binodini Devi.
The other awardee nurses from the North East include Droupadi Ghimira of Sikkim, Sima Deb and Narayan Bir of Tripura and Lalbiaksangi of Mizoram. Each award consists of cash reward of Rs 50,000, a certificate and a medal.
The Union Health & Family Welfare Minister Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “There are 11.28 lakh nurses registered with State Nursing Councils. Out of these, only 40 per cent are active. There is a shortfall of nine lakh nurses in the country”.
A sizeable chunk of the Nursing pass outs go to Western and Middle East countries, he said adding, “We are setting up 269 new Auxiliary Nursing and Midwifery as also General Nursing and Midwifery Schools, particularly in the remote and under-served districts of the country at a cost of Rs 2030 crore.
