As the percentage of Institutional deliveries is slowly rising up in the State and after much awareness, people residing in rural areas are adopting the healthy practices still due to the lack of Mamta Vahans, meant for pregnant women, women in a number of far flung areas cannot get access to nearby maternal health institutions.
The State government has made several provisions for institutionalised delivery care and is organising massive awareness campaigns at districts, blocks and panchayats level to tackle the problems. However, Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) feels that, number of Mamta Vahans must be increased to improve the service and to provide maximum assistance to the beneficiaries.
“Mamta Vahans are available but are in less numbers, few technical glitches are also involved with it. Several times it does not cover the distance as prescribed in the guideline. Apart from this, Sahiyas are active only at few places. After 48 hours, if any complications arrives, patients are referred to the near by hospital in city, as there are no provisions to deal with the cases of emergency at block level and lack of Mamta Vahans creates hurdle. At times, there are also staff crunch to deal with the cases of delivery,” said an ANM, Juhi Minz posted in Bero block.
“In a recent meeting with the Chief Secretary it has been decided to increase the number of Mamta Vahans. Within few months, the number of Mamta Vahans will be increased to approximately 5,000 to cater to the needs of different areas accordingly. At present, there are 2,420 Mamta Vahans. The department is also planning to give lucrative offers to the drivers and care takers of Mamta Vahans to widen its reach per panchayat and avoid technical glitches,” Ranchi Civil Surgeon, Dr. AK Choudhary said.
Notably, districts like Pakur, Dumka and Dhanbad have registered less institutional deliveries cases and are far behind other districts of the state. “In the survey conducted in 2015-16, the cases of institutional deliveries have increased from 55 per cent to 67 per cent. In Ranchi, only Kanke block is lagging behind and have registered only 8.2 percent cases of institutional deliveries,” added, Choudhary.
A significant proportion of women in state deliver babies at home without the presence of a skilled attendant and as a result maximum number of maternal deaths is registered here. The distance to health care centres is a key barrier in seeking institutionalised delivery care facility.
However, with the effective institutionalised deliveries that are cash effective are beneficial for women in several ways. The Shishu Yojana program under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) proposes cashless delivery for every woman. If a woman comes to a government hospital, she is provided with all essential medical assistance and quality treatment. The Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) conditional cash transfer scheme, Madilu postpartum kits, Thayibhagya scheme where BPl women can seek free care in private hospitals etc are another added reasons for the woman to seek institutional care.