The Bhiwandi Nizampur Municipal Corporation (BNMC) here in Maharashtra has decided not to allow deliveries of pregnant women at home due to lack of adequate health facilities there, an official said on Sunday.
It has been observed that many a times deliveries at home in slums and rural areas lead to the death of the pregnant woman and the child, the civic body's health officer Dr K R Kharat said.
Around 12,000 to 13,000 deliveries are recorded in Bhiwandi town in a year, of which 3,000 to 4,000 are non-institutional, he said.
These deliveries at home are carried out by midwives, and women and children do not get proper health facilities, he noted.
Hence, Bhiwandi Nizammpur Municipal Commissioner Dr Pankaj Ashiya has decided to compulsorily implement the 'Arogya Sakhi' programme and make it mandatory for deliveries to be conducted at government or civic hospitals, he said.
Presently, there are 15 civic-run health centres in the Bhiwandi Nizampur municipal limits, he said.
The Arogya Sakhi programme trains women health entrepreneurs (Arogya Sakhis) from communities in resource-poor rural areas to provide home-based preventive care, perform diagnostic tests and screen for high-risk factors and ensure early referral during antenatal and infancy period.
Kharat said the civic body will soon appoint 20 'Arogya Sakhis' in every health centre of BNMC for implementation of the programme of institutional deliveries.
These sakhis will move around the slums and other areas and ensure that women are taken to health centres for check-up and delivery.
