ISSUES & CONCERNS

TRIBAL WOMEN IN OUR BLUNDER LAND

  Ajit Panda

Banita Naik is a lactating mother living in a remote village in Sunabeda Panchayat in Nuapada District of Odisha, where the only hope during any health problem for a pregnant or lactating woman is the ASHA (accredited social health activist). Although weak and anemic, Banita can’t consult any health person because the doctor, pharmacist and the ANM (auxiliary nurse midwife) posted in the PHC (primary health centre) in her village do not stay there for fear of Maoists. The lives and livelihood of 4000 such tribal women and children in 24 villages scattered over an area of 600 sq km inside the Sunabeda Wildlife Sanctuary are thus left to the mercy of God. There is no one to monitor the health and nutrition programmes which could help thousands of women live healthy lives. 

Mamata is one such scheme, floated by the Government of Odisha in 2011 as a conditional cash transfer plan, to compensate pregnant and nursing mothers for wage loss to an extent, and enable them to get adequate rest and nutrition, besides providing incentive to health-seeking behaviour such as immunization, appropriate child-feeding practices, etc. Eligible women in rural areas who register at the anganwadi (day care centre or nursery) and get immunized are given the first installment of Rs. 1500 out of the total incentive of Rs. 5000 in the sixth month of pregnancy. The other installments are given in due course, when the women fulfill certain conditions such as immunization and adoption of breast-feeding. However, due to the negligence of the service providers of ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) and health departments, the women of the remote villages are deprived of their rights. 

Banita gave birth to a baby 11 months ago, but she is yet to get support under the Mamata Scheme. Kasturi Bag has also not got her due benefits, although seven months have passed since the birth of her baby. There are many others-Chanchala, Lalita, Indumati, Gotri, Rosanti, Triveni, Jaimati and Suka, to name a few – among the 50-odd women of Sunabeda and Soseng Gram Panchayats, who have registered for support under Mamata but have not yet received a single installment of the money due to them. There are also women who were not allowed to even register their names. Nrupati, now the mother of a six-month-old baby, and her sister Gomati, mother of a one-year-old baby were not allowed to register. “We requested the ANW to register us when our children were in the womb but the ANW did not care.” say the sisters. “We have submitted all the required forms and documents, even the bank account numbers to the ICDS office, but no action has been taken,” say the ASHA and ANW of Sunabeda and Sanbaheli Villages. “We do not know, what the cause of the delay is,” they add. 

Santara Bhunjia is the ASHA of Sunabeda Village. She submitted documents of 10 pregnant and lactating women to the ICDS office of Komna in the course of the last year, but not 

one of them have received any support. “My daughter-in-law was one of them. She was very weak during her pregnancy. The baby died just after birth in the hospital, and the doctor said the fluid in the womb had been drained, which caused the death of the child,” says Santara, who had shifted her daughter-in-law to the CHC (community health centre) of Komna, covering a distance of 34 km on a ghat (uphill) road from her village, hoping in vain for a safe confinement for the woman. Ninety per cent of the pregnant and new mothers in Sunebeda area are underweight and anemic. But the system is such that no one can be blamed. 

The Sunabeda area is a conflict zone due to the presence of the Maoists. “The situation was not good even in the past,” say the people. They explain how the forest officials were harassing them by lodging cases against them for alleged violation of laws. “The forest officials have withdrawn after the arrival of Maoists but they were equally harmful for us. Hundreds of forest law and police cases were lodged against us during their reign in the sanctuary. Eleven of our villagers had been jailed in 2006 and the case is still going on in court,” they add. After the withdrawal of wildlife officials, the people are now sandwiched between the Maoists and the police force. Considering the area a danger zone, the health officials have been avoiding it for years. 

The only staff of the PHC staying in the village is the attendant, S. Majhi. “He even conducts deliveries when the ambulance does not arrive to take women to the Komna CHC for institutional delivery,” say the villagers. “The attendant stays here because he is a tribal,” they add. “I am facing a lot of difficulties due to non-availability of medicines,” says    Majhi.The pharmacists’ quarters located near the deserted health centre is locked. A heap of boxes with medicines is inside the room. “The pharmacist has not handed over to the attendant, the medicines that he brought a year ago and their best-before-dates must have expired,” say the villagers. The headquarter hospital in Nuapada has not issued medicines to the Sunabeda PHC for several months, hence there is a shortage. Majhi is not authorized to take medicines from the headquarters and the pharmacist has not turned for more than a year. The victims of this apathy and indifference are the people, mostly the women and children. Some of the women are fortunate enough to have got Rs 1400 under the Janani Surakshya Yojana (JSY), which is given as an incentive for institutional delivery. Seven such women of Village Sanbaheli got the support as they were admitted in time to the CHC of Komna. But nine others, who could not get transport to reach the CHC in time, were deprived of the grant. There are posters of 108 ambulance services in every village but no one has benefited from this. “We go on calling the number, but they do not arrive,” complain the villagers. 

Khadang, Datunam, Jalmadei, Paharia Pada of Dhekunpani, Siletpani, etc are some of the villages where the women are most unfortunate. None of them have visited a health centre in their lives. They do not take any medicine even during their pregnancies. They are even deprived of the supplementary nutrition under ICDS. This could be causing increased maternal and child mortality, but in the absence of a specific study of this situation, the figures can only be guessed. 

Grassroots