news details |
|
|
| No ASHA worker for population of 5,000 in Baramulla villages | | NRHM scheme under question mark | | Jehangir Rashid
SRINAGAR, Feb 3: Inconsistency with regard to implementation of flagship programmes like National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) has come to fore in the state with differing parameters being applied vis-à-vis the areas covered under the scheme.
Same has happened in some of the villages of the Baramulla district in North Kashmir. While a village in the district is enjoying the benefits of NRHM scheme the other set of villages has been neglected by the people at helm. This has caused serious heartburns to the people belonging to the villages where all benefits of NRHM scheme are yet to reach.
More than 5,000 persons belonging to 150 families in the villages of Gund-I-Ibrahim and Zadi Mohalla don't have any ASHA worker while as on the other hand two ASHA workers are working in the Mandyari village despite the fact that only 45 families reside in this village. Gund-I-Ibrahim, Zadi Mohalla and Mandyari come under the Pattan assembly constituency represented by Moulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari of People’s Democratic Party.
According to the guidelines set out by the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry it is imperative that under NRHM scheme an ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) should work for a population of 1,000. However, this parameter has not been implemented in some of the villages of Kashmir valley with examples like Gund-I-Ibrahim and Zadi Mohalla present everywhere.
If this parameter had been religiously followed by the concerned authorities then atleast five ASHA workers should have been working in Gund-I-Ibrahim and Zadi Mohalla villages. However, as on date as no ASHA worker has been posted in these villages' people living there have been deprived of benefits associated with this component of NRHM.
Talking to Early Times, some of the villagers said that they approached the Block Medical Officer, Pattan in this regard. They said the BMO had promised that ASHA workers would be posted with no action taken so far. They demanded intervention from higher ups so that they can overcome this glaring problem.
"NRHM has brought about a revolution in India and the healthcare has been upgraded like anything. As far as we are concerned we have been deprived of facilities under this programme. It is important that the concerned stake holders take note of our sufferings so that there is some relief and we too reap benefits under the NRHM scheme," said the villagers.
ASHAs are community health workers instituted by Government of India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) as part of NRHM. The mission began in 2005; full implementation was targeted for 2012. Their tasks include motivating women to give birth in hospitals, bringing children to immunization clinics, encouraging family planning (e.g., surgical sterilization), treating basic illness and injury with first aid, keeping demographic records and improving village sanitation. ASHAs are also meant to serve as a key communication mechanism between the healthcare system and rural populations.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
