The Health Department has stopped distributing Madilu kits meant for nursing mothers in the district.
The Madilu scheme was launched with the intention of helping poor families. Owing to shortage of supply, hundreds of women have not been provided with kits for the last one-and-a-half months.
Nirmala, who delivered in October, has not yet received the kit. Like her, more than 700 women, who delivered babies in Hassan Institute of Medical Sciences in the last 45 days, have not got the kits.
Each kit consists of 15 items, including a mosquito kit, carpet, bed-sheet, blanket, bathing soap, washing soap, sanitary pads, comb, coconut oil, towel, toothpaste, brush and bedspread, among other things.
Below-the-poverty-line families are eligible for this benefit and each family gets kits for two births. “The objective is to ensure care for both the baby and the mother. There is no point in giving the kit several months later. As the scheme is popular, poor families do not purchase the items included in the kit. The government should ensure that the needy get it when they need it the most,” said a government doctor.
H.L. Janardana, district officer of Reproductive and Child Health, told The Hindu that there had been delay in supplying the kits. “We have written to the senior officers to resolve the problem,” he said.
