Editor: Varun Sharma
A population of around 900 people and not a single doctor.
As a part of The Quint’s election coverage, we reached a village named Bida, near the Indo-Pak border in Rajasthan where we found no doctors, one nurse and just one health center.
A ground-check of the only sub-health centre in the village reveals that not only there is a lack of facilities to treat emergency patients but also no availability of ambulance and medicines.
“When I took charge, I was provided with one labour table, one IV stand, one bed and one mattress. The nurse from the main sub-centre in Phaledi got me four chairs and some stationery items.”Danpati, Nurse
The only ANM (Auxiliary Nurse Midwife) in the village has to refer any emergency or critical patients to the main community health centre a few kilometres away.
“We are poor people. They should build a hospital in the village because we have to go to Sam or Jaisalmer. It is difficult to afford our own transport every time.”Anya, Local
Inside the poorly lit delivery room, there is a half-broken bed, no operation bulb and a nurse kit which is often not sterilised for lack of facilities to disinfect the equipment. Danpati says she often boils the equipment in hot water at home as there are no proper provisions at the healthcare centre.
“When I am alone, it is difficult to manage alone. Whom should we take care of – the mother or the child? One person can only do only one thing at a time. Sometimes there are two to three delivery cases at one go.”Danpati, Nurse
While 36-year-old Nainu says the politicians never even visited their village after winning elections, students from a local school dreams hope to come to their aid by growing up to be doctors and building hospitals in their village.
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