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| Paradip Port Trust Hospital. Telegraph picture |
Paradip, Feb. 21: The National Rural Health Mission’s (NRHM) flagship programme that provides a cash transfer directly to pregnant women to encourage institutional delivery has been stuck in red tape at the Paradip Port Trust Hospital.
In what is apparently a fallout of dual administration, as many as 951 women from the port township, who attained motherhood through institutional child delivery, are yet to receive financial incentives under the health programme.
The Paradip Port Trust Hospital, run by PPT, has drawn blank as far as disbursing the benefits of JSY is concerned. The Centre-funded scheme carved out to ensure safe child delivery and reduce maternal maternity rate, has failed to start in the premier hospital in the port town.
In sharp contrast, all cases of institutional deliveries in the government-run Biju Memorial Hospital have been taken up under JSY in all seriousness. Beneficiaries admitted for child delivery in the government-run hospital have received the Rs 1,000 cash earmarked for urban women.
“Women opting for child delivery in the port-run hospital are entitled for cash incentives. It’s the indifference on part of the port hospital authorities that has deprived the beneficiaries of the monetary incentives. Repeated request letters have been sent to them. But they have fallen on deaf ears,” said Jagatsinghpur chief district medical officer (CDMO) Rabi Das.
Since the flagship programme was set in motion, not a single woman who gave birth in the port trust hospital has received money in this scheme. It’s indeed a matter of deep concern that authorities are paying scant regard to the Union government’s flagship programme, said Biraja Kumar Pati, a women’s rights activist.According to Pati, there is a huge communication gap between the government agency and the port hospital’s management. Poor women from the urban areas are being deprived of post-maternity benefits.
“The prospective beneficiaries are running from pillar to post to receive the benefits,” Pati said.
