ROSHNI Blog

Swagata Yadavar   When Khusbu Chaudhari, 24, seven months pregnant, first came to Ballabgarh Government Hospital, she was moderately anaemic. Here, a week later, she is seen at the hospital with Sunita Malik, the nurse in-charge, after receiving her second dose of intravenous iron sucrose. Faridabad, Haryana and New Delhi: It was past 2 p.m. Khusbu Chaudhari, 24, seven months pregnant, was lying on a bed in the general ward at the Ballabhgarh Government Hospital in Haryana’s Faridabad. A thin plastic bag with her medical file lay next to her. Seven days before, when Chaudhari had first visited the hospital after moving here from her mother’s home in Mumbai, her haemoglobin was 8.2 gm/dL--much below the normal range (12-16 gm/dL) for women. This meant she had moderate anaemia--which, during pregnancy, can be very risky for her and her child. A health assistant herself, Chaudhari did not want to take chances--she had an emergency caesarean section in 2017 when...

Swagata Yadavar   Ushasri with her three-month-old son and anganwadi worker T Vijaya. Ushashri’s first son was 2.5 kg at birth, while her younger son was 3 kg, apparently heavier because she was better fed Rajahmundry (East Godavari district), Andhra Pradesh: The most significant difference between Ushasri’s two sons--born seven years apart--was their weight. The first was 2.5 kg, just above the low birth-weight category, which is linked to long-term health risks, as a fifth of Indian babies are, as are 17.6% in Andhra Pradesh (AP). Ushashri’s second son, born here three months ago, 150 km north of Vijayawada, was a healthy 3 kg. What changed during her two pregnancies was the universalisation of an AP government programme that began in 2013 in 102 so-called “high risk” blocks to all 676 blocks in 2017 to provide a hot, cooked meal of rice, sambar, milk and eggs to nearly 600,000 pregnant and lactating mothers at local anganwadis or government day-ca...