Reproductive and Child Healthcare
This activity is being carried out in 10 villages of Sarsawa block. These villages are very remote and situated between three rivers Yamuna, Old Yamuna and Maskara. Every rainy season the villages are cut off from the rest of the district because of gushing water of the rivers. This peculiar situation of these villages has resulted in numerous problems before the residents. One area of concern is access to health services, more particularly mother and child healthcare (MCH). Nearest primary health centres (PHCs) from the villages are situated at distances ranging from 7 to 22 km from the villages. Similarly nearest primary health sub-centres (PHSCs) are situated at distances ranging from 1 to 4 km. For getting a public transport residents in six out of 10 villages have to cover distances ranging from 0.5 km to 4 km. It is obvious that accessing health services is a Herculean job for the villagers. At PHC and more particularly at PHSCs the facilities are not available and even if they are available they are generally not made available to the patients. PHC’s role is confined to examination of patients (sometimes even by non-doctors), writing down prescriptions and referral to the district hospital. Medicines are rarely made available to the patients. PHSCs are supposed to play a larger role in MCH. The ANMs posted there are supposed to deliver services not only from their PHSCs, but also by touring all the villages allocated to them. But the truth is that ANMs do not attend their PHSCs regularly and remain on ‘visit’ to the field on papers. The situation is worse in case of those PHSCs that are off the main roads. Prospective mothers hardly get any advice from ANMs. Immunisation of the children is largely confined to administering polio drops. In this rather bleak scenario, a number of quacks have opened their ‘clinics’ in almost all the villages. These quacks are playing with the lives of the hapless mothers and fleecing them. Instances of patients losing their lives at the hands of the quacks are not very uncommon. This activity makes an attempt to address these problems. Ten village health workers (VHWs), one each for each village have been selected and trained. The VHWs are the nodal persons in their respective villages. Contacts have been established with the government’s health department. The VHWs work in close association with the government health workers and take active part in pulse polio, immunisation of mother and child and family planning. Health camps are organised not only for mothers and children, but also for general people. The highlights of the camps are:
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