Pregnant women in the agency area of Adilabad now have good reason to be happy about. A specialised initiative to improve institutional deliveries has not only resulted in better access to hospitals but also succeeded in significant reduction of infant and maternal mortality rates (IMR and MMR) among tribal people of nine mandals in the district.
The initiative was launched in February to eventually cover the mandals of Narnoor, Jainoor, Sirpur (U), Kerameri, Wankidi, Asifabad, Tamsi, Sirpur (T) and Kutala under a centralised mechanism to track each and every case of pregnancy aimed, among other things, to facilitate transport of pregnant women to hospitals.
A 24x7 call centre at the ITDA sends SMS alerts to everyone concerned – including the ITDA Project Officer, the Additional District Medical and Health Officer in Agency, the ANM and even the driver of the ambulance on the time of the delivery in a given case.
The ITDA has purchased six vehicles used exclusively for the purpose in the mandals in question. The facilitation has drastically reduced home deliveries from 1,768 in 2013 to 322 so far, said R.K. Anantha Krishnan, Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellow with the ITDA, who is also the nodal person looking after implementation of the programme.
Adilabad district has one of the highest rates of IMR at 56 (deaths per 1,000) against the State’s average of 47 and country’s average of 41. The MMR rate of 222 (deaths per 1 lakh population) is also among the highest in the State and the country.
“In the last six months since the initiative was launched, the IMR has come down by over half to 20, and the MMR is just 2 in the mandals where the initiative has been taken up,” Mr. Krishnan reveals. “Against the 681 institutional deliveries in these mandals recorded last year, we have already achieved 1,018 during the eight months in question,” he adds to underscore the success of the specialised initiative.
The programme has also helped the ITDA tackle the perilous problem of anaemia, the haemoglobin percentage being less than 8 in a majority of pregnant tribal women. “The help of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) is enlisted to provide proper food to weak mothers through the tracking system in operation,” Mr. Krishnan says.
