Kalahandi deprived of reproductive health care facilities

The Statesman, Nov 3, 2008

BHAWANIPATNA, Nov. 2: Minimum health care services are absent in the interiors of Kalahandi. People here are deprived of essential medicines for reproductive health, opined the social activists participating in the two day training programme on Essential Medicines for Reproductive Health organised at the Extension Training Centre here recently.
The training camp was organised by Jana Swasthya Seva Sanstha (JSSS) in collaboration with Community Development Medicinal Unit (CDMU) and Orissa Voluntary Health Association (OVHA), Bhubaneswar. More than 60 NGO workers and social activists working in the field of rural health services participated in the programme.
Participants at the camp felt that there is a gross absence of education on reproductive health in the region which is leading to unsafe motherhood and the rise in rates of infant and maternal mortality. There is a need for making essential medicines available at doorsteps, education on the proper use of medicines and timely referral when needed to medical institutions by a coordinated approach between NGOs, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) staff and health department workers to check the high infant and maternal mortality rate particularly in the inaccessible pockets of the district, the participants suggested.
In the absence of trained professionals, quacks in the district are having a field day further endangering the health of innocent victims, they added.
On the occasion experts from OVHA and from the district health office imparted basic training to volunteers regarding the use of medicines for reproductive health. Low cost medicines were also provided to 70 villages of Kalahandi by the Community Development Medicinal Unit, Bhubaneswar.