(Second from left) AN Singh, deputy managing director, corporate services, Tata Steel, at the venue for the inauguration. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, Jan. 24: The first one-stop family planning centre of the city, Surya Clinic, was inaugurated today at the Kantilal Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Bistupur by deputy Tata Steel managing director Arun Narayan Singh.

The 10-bed centre with state-of-the-art facilities has been set up jointly by the Tata Steel Family Initiative Foundation (TSFIF) and Janani, a non-government organisation working to improve medicare facility in the country.

On the occasion, Singh said the centre has been set up with the objective to provide affordable family-care facility to residents of the steel city and its adjoining areas.

?The centre has been equipped with an advance operation theatre and pathological laboratory to cater to the need of the patients,? he said.

According to officials at the centre, an estimated 25 per cent of couples in the reproductive age group of 15 to 51 years do not get proper medical facility.

?The problem is particularly prevalent among rural and urban poor and at times results in medical complications in most women in the reproductive age,? they added.

A senior officer at TSFIF said one of the greatest problems in the district is of unsafe abortion leading to gynaecological complications in most of the patients.

?With the inauguration of the centre the problem will reduce substantially as those patients opting for an abortion in case of unwanted pregnancy can get it done safely by an expert and at an affordable cost,? the officer said.

TSFIF manager Anamika Sharma said, the centre was starting with 10 beds.

However, as the number of patients increase, the beds will also be increased.

Janani manager Navin Kumar Agarwal, who is looking after the administration of Surya Clinic, said all facilities provided by them was within the reach of the economically weaker section of society.

?The charge for various family planning methods was two to three times less than what is charged by most private hospitals and clinics,? he said.

Agarwal added that the cost of abortion (within 10 weeks of pregnancy) at the centre is Rs 399 which is many times less than what is charged by similar institutions.

The cost of female ligation (a method of family planning) is Rs 499 and the patients are released within four hours of the operation.

Similarly, the charge for non-scalpal vasectomy is Rs 149 and the patient is released within half-an-hour after the operation.

Agarwal added that the centre, at present, would function from 9 am to 5 pm. Later, it will be in operation for 24 hours. This will take at least three to four months.