Pregnant Tribal Woman Going on Doli Delivers Baby Midway to Hospital
Absence of Anganwadi centres and ASHA health workers leaves expectant mothers without the necessary support. Villagers echoed these concerns, pointing to the severe challenges they face during medical emergencies.
Visakhapatnam: Pangi Sai, a 22-year-old woman of PVTG Kondu Adivasi community from Losingi village in Rolugunta mandal of Anakapalli district, gave birth to a baby girl while being taken to a hospital on a doli that tribal people of hills and forests use to transport their ill, infirm and aged.
The incident once again highlights the infrastructure and healthcare challenges that tribal communities continue to face.
Losingi is a remote hilltop village that is home to 70 families. The village lacks motorable roads and basic medical facilities. Early on Sunday morning, Pangi went into labour. Her husband Sundar Rao and several relatives started taking her in the doli to Y.B. Patnam village, where they reached at 7 a.m. Before the ambulance arrived two hours later at 9 a.m., Pangi had delivered her baby under the shade of a banyan tree. The ambulance took the mother and child to the Buchimpet Primary Health Centre (PHC) for postnatal care.
Sundar Rao expressed deep anguish over the government’s failure in ensuring maternal health services in Losingi. Absence of Anganwadi centres and ASHA health workers leaves expectant mothers without the necessary support. Villagers echoed these concerns, pointing to the severe challenges they face during medical emergencies.
In an effort to address such infrastructural deficits, Anakapalli district collector Vijaya Krishnan sanctioned ₹2.5 crore through the Panchayat Raj Engineering department’s Employment Guarantee Scheme for construction of a BT road linking Y.B. Patnam to Losingi via Pedaguruvu. Although initial earthwork and granular sub-base had been carried out, completion of the road came to a halt due to unpaid bills.
On June 26, media reported that schoolchildren from Losingi have to walk nearly 10 kilometres each day to attend classes. In response, the collector sent a fact-finding team led by Narsipatnam revenue divisional officer to Losingi. The team, which had to walk along the route, recommended urgent resumption of the roadwork. But nothing happened. The subsequent rains washed away what could have become a road.
Villagers recount a heart-breaking incident when a child from Pedaguruvu died while being transported for treatment in a doli. Further, to collect government-provided rations and nutritional aid for pregnant and lactating women, they have to travel eight kilometres to Rajannapet. Such a state of affairs continues to endanger the lives of tribal people.
Residents of Losingi are now pleading with authorities to complete the road construction or establish an Anganwadi centre, assign a community health worker, and set up a local ration depot to improve their living conditions.
CPM leader K. Govinda Rao said in early February, collector Vijaya Krishnan and MLA K.S.N. Raju had visited Losingi and other tribal hamlets on foot to witness the harsh conditions first-hand. However, nothing better has happened despite their visit.
