Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Oct 11: In a startling revelation, over 21, 000 foetus may have been killed in parts of Jammu district during past 5 years as the Health Department has lost track of these pregnant cases after they were registered by the department.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India report on Jammu district released here makes revelations about the alarming foetus killings. The report revealed that 57,503 cases of pregnancy were registered since 2006 in test-checked blocks of Jammu district while only 35, 669 deliveries had been registered by the department. “The 21, 834 registered pregnant cases have neither been traced nor has department any information about them”, the report said.
The report added that chances of foetus killings after illegal sex determination of these 21, 834 cases can’t be ruled out. The Chief Medical Officer of Jammu district, however, in his statement has said that the variation was due to registration of cases more than once as fool proof system was not available with the department.
The Government under National Rural Health Mission (NHRM) had kept a bench mark of 90 per cent for institutional deliveries by 2010 and 100 percent by 2012 in the District Health Action Plan (DHAP) 2005-12 of Jammu district. However, as per the report only 62 percent target has been achieved.
In order to reduce maternal and neo-natal mortality, the Government under the Janani Suraksha Yojna (JYS) encouraged pregnant women to have an institutional delivery rather than domiciliary delivery. Under the programme, Rs 1, 400 are given to the rural mother for institutional delivery. The records suggested that out of 49, 821 women only 17, 353 were paid the incentive of Rs 1400 in five test blocks of Jammu district.
The pregnant mothers are being tracked by the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) with one ASHA for 1000 population. The report said that there are 881 ASHAs when the sanctioned strength is 974.
The targets of the bench mark for vaccination of children in 5 years was set in the DHAP 2005-12 as 50 percent for year 2007-2008, 60 per cent for 2008-2009, 75 per cent for 2009-2010 and 90 per cent for 2010-2011. However, the report said that the complete immunization of the children in test blocks was far below the goals set by the department in the DHAP.
The report suggested that the goals for achieving 90 percent vaccination during 2010-11 has failed as only 49 to 72 percent of the children had been immunized during the year. The report said sufficient number of ASHAs have been engaged by the department for tracking the immunization of the children. It has questioned the role of ASHAs for not tracking the immunization of the children.
The CAG report has failed to ascertain the performance of the department with regard to vaccination of Hepatitis-B, Hepatitis-B1 and DPT-1 and DPT-2 as the records have not been maintained at the district level by the department.
The report said that as per the mission guidelines of the NRHM regular training was to be provided to medical staff to update their skills. The data collected by the CAG revealed that no training was imparted to the medical officers and para-medical staff for upgradation of skills despite adequate budgetary provisions.
The report suggested that non-formulation of annual action plans during 2006-10 defeated the basic objective of the NRHM to decentralize planning and implementation arrangements. The report further said that lack of infrastructure facilities had deprived the rural population of the envisaged healthcare benefits forcing it to move to urban areas for healthcare facilities.
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