The Hindu Business Line : A rural healthcare revolution in the making in Bengal

AT a time when the Left Front Government is West Bengal faces public ire over lack of proper healthcare at the city's government-run hospitals, an experiment in providing rural medi-care through female health assistants might well bring about a health revolution in the country.

Part of the State Government's programme on preventive healthcare in rural areas through decentralisation, the healthcare assistants are residents of a village where they are trained to work as health workers. "The main objective is to link every village, every family to the governmental health system," State Government sources said.

Officials said the health assistants, being residents of the villages, are readily available and having received training from the State Health Department are equipped to give advice on routine health problems, especially those related to the welfare of the mother and the child. "This is the reason why although each of the two or three sub-centres (to which the assistants are attached) have both male and female workers, it is the female swasthya sahayika who is creating waves," a Government official said.

Basic aspects of rural healthcare are covered during the training programme. The curriculum includes creating a immunisation schedule of a pregnant mother and then the newborn, nutrition of mother and child, preparation of low-cost diet for children, first-aid for snake bites, treatment of cuts, burns and other injuries and personal hygiene. Every health assistant gets a medical kit, which includes essential items of first-aid, ORS packets, antibiotic ointment, a thermometer and leaching powder. A bicycle is also given to each of them for easy conveyance.

According to a report prepared by the State Government, since the launch of this initiative in June 2003, a perceptible change has been noticed in the state of the health of people living in villages. "During studies made by the Health Department, it was found that there were fewer cases of diarrhoea, pre-natal as well as post-natal care had improved, with children getting delivered in hospitals instead of homes. More toilets using sanitary facilities were being built. This was only the beginning of a process where stakeholders participate in building their own healthcare infrastructure which might be rudimentary but is nevertheless effective," the sources said.