In spite of a series of maternal health facilities and schemes listed out by the Indian Government, women refrain from getting deliveries conducted at the state run health facilitates due to negative experiences of abuse and neglect by health service providers, seen with overcharging and out of pocket expenditure for services that are offered for free.
A video developed by community correspondent of Video Volunteers (VV), Mary Nisha from Godda district, of Jharkhand reflects how a 24year old woman in labour was kept waiting for the doctor for nearly six hours. The doctor on duty was not present at the time of the delivery, where the young woman had to deliver her child in the presence of a nurse.
The ordeal does not end there, but the woman was forced to pay INR 400 for her delivery, where she was charged for using the toilet at the health facility. She received neither free medicines nor any nutritional feed. This,despite the provisions made by the JananiSurakshaYojana (JSY), the Indian government’s scheme that is brought to bring down maternal deaths. The JSY makes provisions to reduce out-of-pocket expenditure for women below the poverty line, providing free antenatal checkups, IFA tablets, medicines, nutrition in health institutions, provision for blood transfusion, and transport from health centres and back home.
The video can be accessed on :
Video Volunteer(VV) is working towards empowering voices and training community members as community correspondents wherein members of the disadvantaged community are imparted with story and data gathering skills.
To know more about Video Volunteers visit: http://www.videovolunteers.org/