The Mother and Child Tracking System has reached out to 37 L expectant and new mothers in remote villages
From a quaint campus in New Delhi, Dr Pinky Sapangthem virtually hand holds a small fraction of rural women in India through their pregnancies. Dr Sapangthem is part of a team of over a 100 personnel — that includes doctors, call centre operators, and IT consultants — who help run the Mother and Child Tracking System (MCTS) for the Union Health Ministry at the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW).
The team is helping to bring to light gaps and lapses in healthcare services in rural India. Only a few days ago, Dr Sapangthem received a shocking information on call from a women in rural Rajasthan. She complained that they were being administered Intra-Uterine Devices (IUD) like Copper T, without their consent. “We immediately reported it to our seniors, who took up the matter with state officials to initiate action against such violations,”she said.
They also come across cases where mothers deliver at home due to lack of roads or ambulances, and girls under 18, who delivered post rape.
About 86 women work at the call centre, reaching out to pregnant women and new mothers in 13 states. They also call up Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and Auxilliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs), who are the primary care providers in villages. With contact data from nurses at block level, everyday each call centre employee makes upto 80 calls, of which an average of 40 calls mature, explains Alok Kumar Verma, Director, Statistics at the ministry.
“They check with mothers and health care providers on access to free drugs, Iron Folic Acid tablets, ORS packets, and contraceptives. Sometimes, while health workers claim that all is well, mothers reveal otherwise,” he said.
Sapangthem, and other doctors, attend about 30 calls per day of desperate mothers looking for medical guidance.
Next month, the health ministry is also expected to float a toll free number — 10588 — for women seeking medical guidance on reproductive and child health.
ON CALL...
At 1 pm on Wednesday, a call centre employee connects on phone with a 26-year-old pregnant woman, Lakshmi, from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh. Lakshmi is in her first trimester.
She is asked questions like “Has she taken her vaccinations? Has she got her hemoglobin levels checked? Has her blood pressure been measured?” in her local dialect.
While the conversation is on, the employee is filling in a proforma and generating data on the beneficiary.
Later, Lakshmi and others are given tips on how to avail government schemes, importance of vaccination and so on.
Specific lapses – like non-availibility of drugs, or forced sterlisation — get picked up, and are reported.
At the moment, calls are made by employees in Hindi, Bangla, Oriya and Assamese. “We are looking for persons well versed in Gujarati and Telugu,” said Verma.
NUMBER CRUNCHING
MCTS centre spend 10 lakh minutes on calls each month
India records upto 3 crore pregnancies every year
37,16,166 calls to pregnant women or new mothers have been made since its launch two and a half years ago.
2,14, 789 calls have been made to nurses and 5,97,003 calls have been made to ASHA workers
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