The Antara Foundation Blog

Rithika Sangameshwaran A Community Health Centre (CHC) the third point of contact in the rural public health system “The maternal mortality rate (MMR) of India is 167 per 100,000 live births and the infant mortality rate (IMR) is 34 per 1000 live births. These are important statistics and you must know them”, the professor instructed a class of about forty listless students aspiring to be public health professionals. I dutifully made a note of those numbers and kept memorising until they became embedded in my head. After all, these are important statistics a public health professional must know. But the thing with statistics is that they are just numbers. Although undoubtedly important numbers, they also make it easy to overlook that there are people- real people behind these numbers. In my opinion, these evolving statistics, while extremely instructive, fail to capture stories. Maybe that is why they are forgettable. I believe that it is always the stories one remembers,...

Priyadarshini Roy It was the cusp of winter and summer in Jhalawar- February 2018. I was looking forward to the field trip this time, especially after the long hiatus. The country side is always refreshing. New ideas come to mind effortlessly, and one feels completely rejuvenated. It is also a good time to take stock of strategies/activities that the government is implementing or we, as an organization are supporting. More often than not, it is gratifying to know that your efforts are in the right direction, while sometimes it makes you sit up and question whether things are really going the way you had envisaged. I was visiting a Village Health and Nutrition Day [1]  (VHND) at an Anganwadi Centre (AWC) in Khanpur block of Jhalawar. The Auxiliary Nurse Mid-wife (ANM) was carrying out her routine activities like immunization, ante natal care, etc. Intermittently, young children below 6 years were being weighed. Little babies, oblivious of what was coming cooed and giggled in ...

Aditi Rao Our fellow, Aditi Rao, worked on Jagori Kishori, our adolescent girls program in Jhalawar and Baran districts of Rajasthan. In this post, she chronicles stories of three girls who have inspired her: Never Back Down We often attribute most issues to a gap in knowledge. However, there are several circumstances where it is not a lack of awareness, but an absence of bargaining power that leads to these problems. Radha is the Adolescent Girl (AG) Leader in Danta, Pirawa. Optimistic that the programme will bring about a change in the status of maternal health in her village, she carries out her duties with great dedication. On one of her visits, she noticed the beneficiary, a heavily pregnant woman, lifting something heavy. She advised her not to do so, and to take some time out to rest every day. To her surprise, the woman shot back, saying that she is aware of the do’s and don’ts, but cannot argue with her mother-in-law, who dictates the terms in her 'h...

Priyadarshini Roy Most of summer of 2015 was spent in villages of Jhalawar, a district in Rajasthan. It was only a month that our flagship program, Akshada, was launched. The main objective of the program is to improve the maternal health, child health and nutrition indicators. Hence it was important to speak to the mothers to understand practices around health and nutrition. Every day we would meet groups of women. Younger women with babies in their arms were eager to interact. The older women would typically trickle in later and make statements – often complaining about ideas like ‘rest during pregnancy’ by the doctors. They thought such advice had ‘spoilt’ the younger women. They would often say that now-a-days young women do not have the kind of strength that they possessed in their youth. I would ignore such statements because they were not responses to our questions- what do young mothers feed their children, what do they have during their pregnancy, are there any f...

Ratan Kunwar  It is a typical summer day in Jhalawar, Rajasthan. The journey to the field is long and bumpy and yet the landscapes, so well anchored in time, offer an extravagant simplicity beyond any polished beauty. We are here to meet and better understand the work and life of Ratan Kunwar, a young ANM posted in Moondla sub-center of Khanpur Block in Jhalawar District of Rajasthan. She has been providing healthcare services for over a year now. How did you get involved in this work? I was lucky to have been given a proper education, unlike many girls in my village. When I graduated, the next step was finding a job to earn for my family. Who knew that one day, following my friends to fill out a form for healthcare services would change my life for the better. What is a work day in your life like? I live with my elder brother and his wife, so I wake up at 5:30am every day to help my sister-in-law with household chores. After that I set out on my scooter to the fie...

“Many girls in my class have dropped out this year, but I will complete my studies,” says 15-year old Vimal with a bright smile.  “I want to be a police officer when I grow up. I want to do something which will make everyone in the village proud of me” she says. Others in the group of about 15 girls slowly speak up as well, and each reveals a similar ambition. Some want to be teachers, others want to be nurses, but almost all of them express a desire to make a difference by serving the communities they live in. When we tell them, about Akshada, the maternal and child health program that we run in Rajasthan, they are quick to respond with interesting questions and observations they have on the topic. “Kya aap tika-karan karwaenge” (will you get children immunized); “garbhvasta mei hari sabzi khani chahiye (one should eat green vegetables during pregnancy); “kya aap unn bachon ka illaj karenge jinka vazan kam hai (will you treat those children who weigh less)? They...

Ashok Alexander More than a million children under-five die every year in India from largely preventable illnesses. Of the ones who survive, some thirty per cent are malnourished. Many women don’t get good care when pregnant, when they deliver, or after they give birth. There is improvement, and states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Himachal show the way. Others, like Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, are tackling the problem. But the fact remains: India’s maternal and child record is one of the world’s worst. Ironically, India’s public health system is well designed, and potentially, has great reach. Every last village and hamlet in India is covered by a health facility. There are three health/childcare workers for every such unit – higher than in most countries. There are visionary, grass roots health programs. Health spending is low, overall—but many states don’t spend all their funds. Reach, design nor funding is the real problem. It is far more complex.  A woman just may...