Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda will unveil the SUMAN Roadmap 2030 and the Operational Guidelines on National Ambulance Services (NAS), 2026 on Monday during the 16th Conference of the Central Council of Health and Family Welfare (CCHFW), marking a major push to improve maternal, newborn and emergency healthcare services across India.
The SUMAN Roadmap 2030 has been designed as a comprehensive national strategy to accelerate progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to maternal and newborn health. The framework seeks to reduce the Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) to below 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030, while also lowering neonatal and infant mortality rates and advancing the goal of zero preventable maternal and newborn deaths.
Recognising that challenges persist despite significant gains in maternal healthcare, the roadmap introduces customised and evidence-based interventions tailored to the needs of individual states and districts, particularly in high-burden regions. It focuses on 130 districts across 13 high-focus states, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Assam and West Bengal.
The roadmap adopts a life-cycle approach to maternal and newborn care, integrating services from pre-pregnancy and antenatal care to childbirth and postnatal support. It places special emphasis on identifying and managing high-risk pregnancies through a structured four-stage framework covering antenatal, third-trimester, intrapartum and postnatal risk management.
Among its key interventions are bi-weekly home visits by ASHAs during the final months of pregnancy, strengthened referral transport systems, financial support for designated caregivers during the postnatal period, and improved healthcare infrastructure through Birth Waiting Homes, Maternal and Child Health Wings, High Dependency Units and Intensive Care Units in underserved regions.
The strategy also promotes community participation through initiatives such as SUMAN Panchayats, aimed at ensuring universal antenatal care, institutional deliveries, full immunisation and accountability at the local level. Additional measures include nutrition interventions, pre-pregnancy folic acid supplementation, AI-enabled labour rooms, enhanced maternal death reviews and climate-responsive healthcare planning.
Alongside the maternal health roadmap, Nadda will also release the Operational Guidelines on National Ambulance Services (NAS), 2026, a landmark framework intended to standardise emergency medical transport services across the country.
The guidelines establish uniform national standards for ambulance deployment, staffing, equipment, training and service quality. They aim to strengthen pre-hospital emergency care by ensuring timely patient stabilisation, transport and referral to appropriate healthcare facilities.
A key feature of the framework is the establishment of Integrated Command and Dispatch Centres (ICDCs) equipped with GPS-based ambulance tracking, structured triage systems, real-time monitoring dashboards and advanced call management systems. The guidelines also encourage integration with the national emergency response number 112 to improve coordination and response times.
The NAS framework mandates compliance with AIS-125 standards for ambulance safety and quality and promotes scientific deployment of ambulances based on factors such as population density, accident hotspots, traffic conditions and geographical accessibility.
Additionally, the guidelines envision GIS-enabled mapping of hospitals, ambulance bases, critical care facilities and high-risk zones, enabling dispatch teams to identify the most suitable healthcare facility for patients in emergency situations.
