Adilabad: “Birth waiting rooms” introduced by ITDA, Utnoor, for safe deliveries of pregnant tribal women are not functioning in most tribal areas.
As per the concept behind establishing these rooms, local ANMs must shift expectant mothers at least one week in advance to these places in Utnoor, Asifabad, Jainoor and Mancherial in the old Adilabad district. Well-balanced nutritious food is made available to women admitted to these centres.
The birth waiting rooms had been established especially for pregnant Adivasi women living in high-risk interior areas, as some of them had been losing their precious lives due to lack of road connectivity to their villages and delay in shifting the patient to the nearest PHCs or government hospital for delivery. The delays had been more during the monsoon season, when streams and rivulets overflow with floodwaters affecting road connectivity to villages.
However, these birth waiting rooms have gone defunct in Asifabad, Jainoor and Mancherial centres. Only the one at Utnoor is functioning.
With the current monsoon on, risk to pregnant tribal women of these areas has increased.
