The Hindu : Baby boom after `Operation Parakarram'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 29, 2004

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Other States - Jammu & Kashmir

Baby boom after `Operation Parakarram'

By Our Staff Reporter

JAMMU, JAN. 28. Military hospitals of the Northern Command are trying to cope with a baby boom a year after `Operation Parrakaram' which witnessed the biggest deployment in peace time of the armed forces on the Western front. The operation started after the December 13 attack on Parliament in 2001.

In the ten-month long `Operation Parrakaram' the soldiers were kept away from the family stations and their leave also cancelled for the same period. It was only after October 2002, almost a year after the de-escalation of troops, when the soldiers returned to the family stations or were granted leave to visit families in their hometowns. Since then an instant rise in birth of babies of the Army personnel has been registered in the military hospitals here. Military doctors cite a parallel of world wide baby boom after the Second world war when soldiers returned home.

For instance, the 166 Military Hospital, Jammu, which caters to the Asia's largest corps i.e. 16 Corps coming under Northern Command, is nowadays witnessing a baby boom. 16 Corps is responsible for all the army activities from Pathankot (Punjab) to the south of the mighty Pir Panjal and runs along the Indo-Pak border and 262 Km Line of Control. In the year 2000, a total of 1,517 babies were born in this hospital. In comparison, in just these past few months, the number of babies born here is a whopping 1,995. According to Colonel (Dr.) Uma Raju of 166 Military Hospital, "This unprecedented baby boom in the Northern Command military hospitals is directly related to `Operation Parakarram'. We are trying to cope up with the increasing strain on our meagre resources to give the best possible medical care to the new born babies." The hospital at present has the highest delivery rate and neonatal admission rate in the Northern Command.

In order to cope with the rising strain on its resources, the hospital has now established a neonatal intensive care unit. Now it is possible to salvage extremely premature babies and critically ill neonates. Sophisticated monitoring equipments permit round the clock monitoring of the sick babies to enable early intervention. The General Officer Commanding, 16 Corps, Lt. General Ashok Kapur, who inaugurated the neonatal ICU here today, reassured military doctors that new born babies of the armed forces personnel would get the best medical treatment and this is on top of the agenda. The topmost hierarchy is aware of the needs of the medical units of the army, especially in the sensitive 16 Corps, he said and added that the hospitals would be further modernised in order to give the best and cope up with the rising pressure.

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Baby boom after `Operation Parakarram'