Providing the much-needed health service to women in rural areas, the Ministry of Health has flagged off the Naari Jeevan Srot Express, a free mobile healthcare unit (MHU). The Express is a unique initiative by the Gaudium Foundation that will connect 15 cities through a bus cruise for the cause of women and girl child health. Dr Aruna Jain, Additional Deputy Director General, DGHS, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, launched the Express under the Naari Jeevan Srot programme.
Within the 15 cities, the Express will connect 74 districts and 250 locations in North India, thereby reaching out to more people in far flung areas across the country and touching more than 9.5 crore people. The bus will hold 18 medical camps in Delhi and cover multiple villages in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Jammu. The mobile unit will provide free treatment, including medicines, iron supplements, diet counselling besides full body checkup and body composition analysis with advance technology equipment.
“The Express will travel more than 10,000 km and help to conduct 200 medical camps and 400 customised health skits (nukkad nataks). The campaign will bust myths and elucidate the enigma around women’s infertility in the country, and more importantly awaken them to the realities of their holistic health through street plays, health camps and public education material,” informed Dr Alok Bhandari, president of Indian Medical Association (West).
The key importance of the programme is to challenge under-reporting of illnesses among women and ensure access to quality services. According to the foundation, other than mapping the magnitude of gynaecological diseases among Indian women and sensitising healthcare professionals on the same, the campaign intends to seek probable solutions, covering all aspects of treatment modalities. This means that the programme looks at all areas right from risk identification and analysis, preventive strategies, diagnosis and medication, treatment or surgery.
Dr Manika Khanna, founder, Gaudium Foundation, said, “The purpose of the Naari Jeevan Srot Express is to support the efforts of the Government to reduce maternal deaths and promote well-being of the girl child. Though there has been considerable progress on the twin fronts of newborn and reproductive health, a lot still needs to be done.”
Bhandari informed that the major direct causes of maternal morbidity and mortality are due to haemorrhage, infection, high blood pressure, unsafe abortion, and obstructed labour. “Additionally, lack of access to skilled medical care during childbirth, the travel distance to the nearest clinic to receive proper care, number of prior births, barriers to accessing prenatal medical care and poor infrastructure also contributed significantly to maternal deaths,” he said.
At the moment women in India face several health problems, some of which, Khanna felt, become a social stigma for them like infertility and rising incidents of reproductive illnesses in young women. “This is increasingly affecting girls even in their teens. This calls for large-scale initiatives that not only connect people from all walks of life but also engage them through a unique awareness drive,” she said.