Odisha among top 5 states to benefit from Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan
Odisha seems to be making good use of the Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA) scheme with 8,702 women receiving free ante-natal care this year. According to a recent government data, Odisha was featured in the top 5 states which benefitted from this ambitious scheme that offers health check-ups for pregnant women in their second and third trimester.
The PMSMA scheme was launched in 2016 by the then Union Health Minister JP Nadda to achieve Sustainable Development Goals by reducing Maternal Mortality and Infant Mortality Rate through safe pregnancies and deliveries envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Inquest to ensure safe motherhood for women across India, PM Modi said that the 9th of every month would be dedicated to pregnant women marking nine months of pregnancy.
The top 5 beneficiary states are Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana and Odisha with Bihar recording the highest of 26,917 closely followed by Uttar Pradesh with 26,207 pregnant women receiving free medical services.
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According to the data, around one crore women have benefitted from the scheme as of 2018 nationally and 8,702 in Odisha in 2019 alone. However, in terms of the number of volunteers enrolled to carry out this social movement, Odisha features in the top 10 states with 188 volunteers registered. Interestingly Odisha is ahead in the number of volunteers registered in comparison to its neighbouring states except for Chhattisgarh with 270 private doctors enrolled. The novelty of this scheme is that it requires private doctors like obstetricians, gynaecologists and radiologists to enrol themselves as volunteers. They will mete out the free health check-up service at the 14,647 stipulated government health facilities across the country. Around 5,799 doctors have enrolled volunteers nationally till date.
The health check-ups facilitate early detection of pregnancy risks, enabling the doctors to tackle them at the time of delivery. The patients are differentiated as high-risk pregnancies and no risk pregnancies with red and green stickers, respectively. From the one crore and above pregnant women, around 6.5 lakh were identified as high-risk pregnancies which face a high chance of maternal death but are preventable with early detection.
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In order to facilitate early detection of high-risk pregnancies, 84 lakh haemoglobin tests, 55 lakh HIV tests, 41 lakh tests for gestational diabetes, 33 lakh tests for syphilis and more than 15 lakh ultrasounds have been conducted under the programme based on the individual clinical conditions of pregnant women. Most of the PMSMA beneficiaries were from the rural and remote areas and urban slums.
