Making a humble contribution to the institutional deliveries of women, a first-of-its-kind hospital established by a madrasa in Ajmer district’s Oontra village has started providing health services in a rural area which lacks basic medical facilities. The 40-bed hospital, built with zakat and other charity funds on the madrasa premises, was formally inaugurated on December 19.
Idara Dawat-ul-Haq, which has started the hospital to cater to the needs of rural population, has been imparting religious education since 1998 and had registered itself with the State government’s Education Department for running multiple schools in 2009-10. One of the schools has since been upgraded to senior secondary level.
The Islamic seminary boasts of a strength of 4,600 students, including girlsThe hospital is the latest addition to the institution’s work for benefiting the villagers.
Idara Dawat-ul-Haq’s head Maulana Mohammed Ayub Qasmi told The Hindu that the initiative for institutional deliveries in the hospital had turned out to be a blessing for the women in the region, who were deprived of medical care during pregnancy and childbirth in the absence of an adequate health infrastructure. The hospital has conducted half-a-dozen institutional deliveries within its first two weeks.
The hospital, which also holds the distinction of being the first medical facility established by a madrasa in Rajasthan, has set an example of communal harmony, as it offers health care at nominal prices to the people belonging to all religions, castes and creed. The emergency, ambulance and medical store facilities are available round the clock.
With a population of 6,000, Oontra, situated 26 km away from Ajmer, has a primary health centre that only refers the patients to bigger hospitals in the nearby Kishangarh town and the district headquarter. The Dawat-ul-Haq hospital, which has installed 16 of the 40 sanctioned beds, has two full time doctors, including a gynaecologist, eight nursing personnel and other paramedical staff.
Anshu Shiv Kumar of Kaipara village, who was advised a Caesarean delivery by the doctors in Ajmer, was the second to undergo normal delivery in the hospital. Shareefa Khatoon of Oontra village said her grandson was born here with full medical care and her daughter-in-law was doing fine.
Kirti Mehta, Nursing Officer in Ajmer’s Jawaharlal Nehru Government Hospital, who has been instrumental in planning and executing the medical facility project at the seminary, said it would help reduce the high infant and maternal mortality rates in the region.
