India Reproductive and Child Health Programme

India's Reproductive and Child Health Programme, commonly abbreviated RCH, is a flagship programme of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, launched on October 15, 1997 to bring together the country's separate family planning and maternal and child health efforts into a single integrated, client-centred and decentralised approach. The programme was designed to improve the reproductive health of women and the health and survival of children through a comprehensive package of services spanning maternal health, child health, contraception, and the treatment of reproductive tract infections and sexually transmitted infections. When the government launched the National Rural Health Mission on April 12, 2005, RCH entered its second phase as one of that mission's major components, and it has continued under the umbrella of the mission's successor, the National Health Mission, carrying forward its original goal of an integrated approach to reproductive, maternal and child health rather than a narrower, single-service programme.