Bhubaneswar, July 11: Grassroots health workers will not have to wait endlessly anymore for the supply of contraceptives from the nearest health centre.

Instead, they just have to send an SMS to the district headquarters hospital on 56363 and get the contraceptives from the health and family welfare department.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today launched a new service called contraceptive logistics management information system on the occasion of World Population Day.

Earlier, the grassroots health workers had to report to the nearest health centre and wait for the stocks to arrive via district headquarters hospital. The process was time consuming. Now, the health workers can SMS their requisition to the district headquarters hospital, where officials would also check the distribution and availability ratio.

Naveen said all the stakeholders would celebrate the population stabilisation fortnight starting from today till July 24. “Fifty per cent of our state population is below 24 years of age. Therefore, the focus on the reproductive health will be more this year,” he said.

The new system will help the process of population stabilisation a lot, as the grassroots health workers can be armed with basic needs such as condoms and distribute it in time of need. Health minister Prasanna Acharya said with the system’s easy approach couples in rural pockets and urban slums could have more protection to avoid pregnancy.

“Last year, we achieved 86 per cent of the family planning target. Moreover, there was a fall both in neonatal mortality and maternal mortality rate. However, still the issue of sex determination of foetus persists. We have to make it a gender-neutral society, so that Orissa will not suffer in having a poor boy-girl ratio. The government is also planning a community-based distribution of contraceptives for better family planning results,” Acharya said.

Commissioner-cum-secretary of the health and family welfare department Anu Garg said: “The SMS-based mechanism has been launched to target common people, so that they will get more contraceptives. Ultimately, the goal of population stabilisation process can be achieved. We can also use the system to accurately track the supply chain, as it can ensure auto generation of reports without any paper work.”

“In many district and sub-divisional centres, internet is not easily available. There the SMS-based system can easily work. It has been developed in such a manner, that it will be compatible with all kinds of mobile handsets,” said Anu.

Guru Charan Sahoo, a councillor of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and an activist working for the destitute women and sex workers in his ward No. 43, said the new system would work wonders for prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.

On the first day of the population stabilisation fortnight, Naveen also felicitated health professionals working in the field of family planning. Last year, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur and Koraput received the top three honours for sterilisation. Balasore and Bhadrak districts got the top honours for conducting sterilisation during the population stabilisation fortnight last year.

Among surgeons conducting family planning operations on males, Sibadas Mohanty of district headquarters hospital, Mayurbhanj, Baripada, got the first prize. On the other hand, for conducting sterilisation on females, Sapan Kumar Dinda of district headquarters hospital, Malkangiri, received the first prize.

Similarly, for spreading health awareness through the folk art traditions, S.K. Padhi and Group got a prize for Bharataleela and Pandit S.N. Das Sharma and Group for Daskathia. Both of them are from Ganjam. Naveen also unveiled the state family planning plan for 2011-12.