Reproductive health services: Govt in a dilemma

EDITORIAL by Central Chronicle, MP Edition, Feb 2, 2007

a call of concern by the Chronicle Reproductive health services in Madhya Pradesh


There has not been desired improvement in the condition of pregnant women in Madhya Pradesh. The state is also not left aloof from the revolutionary developments in health services. However, the news of deaths of 13,000 pregnant women, as per a survey, is really shocking. It is a direct slap on the face of our system which proclaims a lot about the progress being achieved in the health sector. This is a bitter truth which needs to be admitted. In Madhya Pradesh, the urban areas are developing well but the condition of people in the rural areas is deteriorating. Even though the government may have made efforts at its level to improve the situation in rural regions but the lacking of facilities is due to laxity and awareness in the implementation of various health schemes. The data of 13,000 deaths of pregnant women pertain mostly to rural areas.

There is shortage of hospitals in villages even today and where hospitals are present, the doctors are not available. There are many hospitals which have not even seen the faces of the doctors who were appointed for them. When the hospitals are sans general physicians then what to talk of specialist gynaecologists. In this context it may be pointed out that even government hospitals in the urban areas are facing shortage of specialist doctors. The government too is in a fix as to how to improve the standard of its hospitals but till today no permanent solution seems to be in sight. The government launched schemes of anganwadis, trained nurses and `trained dais'. Even then it is only a dilemma that the rural hospitals are not getting the services of these trained nurses. There are allegations of women from urban areas reaping the benefit of `dais'. As a result the trained nurses are not available at the time of deliveries of children and in absence of proper care deaths take place. The deaths are not only due to this factor but a host of diseases during pregnancy.