Jharkhand created history on Tuesday. It became the first State to felicitate two-wheelers (scooty) to the best performing sahiyaa of each district. As an impact, it boosted the confidence of sahiyaas finding hassles in carrying out Central Government’s continuous effort for maintenance of mother-child health.
Taking prompt action for convenience of the sahiyaas, Health Minister Rajendra Prasad Singh prior to the distribution of keys to the sahiyaas at Institute of Public Health, Namkom directed the civil surgeons to ensure driving license and vehicle insurance.
“We will continue organizing such programmes for the sahiyaas. Our main purpose is to make women like you an idol in your respective field. Following the guidelines of MCI, a three day workshop for spreading awareness on breast cancer will soon be organised for sahiyaas. It will help many ladies in gaining information about the disease,” he told the honoured women.
Notably, National Rural Health Mission has taken such initiative to create a competitive spirit among the sahiyaas towards their work. Adding feather to the achievement, Director-in-chief Health Services Sumant Mishra highlighted on central government officials appreciation for local sahiyaas. “GoI officials who visited our place yesterday have praised our efforts. There are various fields where our department has done appreciable work despite limited resources,” he said.
Sahiyaas in the state are already receiving bicycles for carrying out their work. Majority of the awarded sahiyaas here expressed their desire to learn scooty driving as soon as possible. “We often have to walk around 10 kilometers from village to the nearest hospital. The problem arises more when there is no vehicle convenience during emergency cases like child delivery of a woman. This scooty will help in tackling the problem,” 45 year old Jamtara sahiyaa Shankari Devi said.
Similarly, Koderma’s 25 year old sahiyaa Madhuri Kumari said, “There are moments when there are no hospitals in a village or in its neighborhood. It is then our responsibility to operate the delivery in traditional manner. Now, whenever we come to know about such urgency, we can reach out to the pregnant lady’s home through hilly areas immediately.”
Health Minister maintained that the availability of petrol in the scooties is the responsibility of sahiyaas as it is a gift on behalf of the Government. Officials of NRHM mentioned that the delivery of the scooties will be done after 10 days either to their office or to the respective sahiyaa’s district.