The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Health project for pregnant women, infants

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 19, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Health project for pregnant women, infants

By Our Staff Reporter

CUDDAPAH, JAN. 18. The Government has launched a pilot project, Emergency Health Transportation, to check death of pregnant women and infants in the rural areas, according to the Commissioner of Family Welfare, C.B.S. Venkataramana.

Rural people had little access to medicare compared to their urban counterparts as per a National Family Health survey, he said at a meeting with officials here on Tuesday.

While 90 per cent of urban women deliver in hospitals, it was only 45 per cent in the rural areas, Mr. Venkataramana said. Child mortality rate was 62 per cent in the State as against the national average of 64 per cent. However, it was only 14 per cent in Kerala and 44 per cent in Tamil Nadu, he said. Similarly, about 340 women die every year during pregnancy and deliveries as against 450 to 500 in the country.

Arrangements

The pilot project was launched in Cuddapah, Kurnool, Mahabubnagar, Nizamabad, Paderu and Bhadrachalam. Arrangements were being made to transport pregnant women and children to round-the-clock hospitals by ambulances, he said. The pilot project was part of Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) project.

Anaemia and complications during delivery cause most deaths among women and admitting them to hospitals in time would bring down death rate of pregnant women and infants, he observed. A Government hospital would be treated as a unit and health sub-centres in three nearby mandals as one sector having one lakh to 1.50 lakh population.

Equipment

Each sectoral office would have an ambulance, a toll-free telephone, two health workers, two phone attendants and a driver, the Commissioner said. Interested voluntary organisations, which played an active role in health services for at least five years, could forward proposals to the Collector.

NGOs should set up sectoral offices and engage personnel in February and publicise the programme in the rural areas. The Government would bear the cost of maintenance of ambulances and operation costs, while the beneficiary family would have to bear the diesel cost, he said.

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