The reality of Children’s and Women’s Health in Rural Areas

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Healthcare needs of every individual living in rural areas are different from those in urban areas, and mostly rural area have to suffer from a lack of access to healthcare.
Several organizations are working alongside the government and NGOs for the betterment of the rural health and ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) is one of them. National Rural Health Mission provides a trained female community health activist ASHA to every village in the country. The health activist is selected from the village itself and accountable to it, the ASHA got trained to work as an interface between the community and the public health system.

Today we are with the “Prabhavati Padul” who is one of the ‘health activist’ and ‘Arogya Mitr’ (member of Savitribai Phule Mahila Ekatma Samaj Mandal) from her village –Hatmali, Aurangabad.

Prabhavati Padul- A health activist.

1. : How you started working as a health activist?
2. : From the beginning, I was interested in solving the problems regarding the health of women and children in the village. Fortunately, I was selected as an ASHA worker from our village. After selection, I was trained for 1 year by the government.

Then Hedgewar’s Savitribai Phule Mahila Ekatma Samaj Mandal (NGO) appointed me as an ‘Arogya Mitr’ (Health activist). Both posts (ASHA worker & Arogya Mitr) have almost similar responsibilities. After some time Hedgewar’s Savitribai Phule Mahila Ekatma Samaj Mandal also trained me for 1 year & provide a ‘Care mother kit’ for the regulaer checkup of women’s health.

Q.: Generally, What kind of problems do you find about women’s health and how do you solve them?

1. : Maternal deaths are high and the reasons behind this high mortality are that few women have access to skilled birth attendants. There are many cases of child marriage in villages. They also unaware of the problems regarding the Blood Pressure, Haemoglobin rates, so it’s my responsibility to tell them about all these problems regarding their health. Initially, I was working with some members of Hedge war’s Savitribai Phule Mahila Ekatma Samaj Mandal, but after some time, they entrusted me with all responsibility. Then I went to every house to check the health of women. Normally women’s blood pressure increases after 45 years of age. In all these processes, I create awareness among women about their health and I also tell them about the solutions to their health issues.
2. : What programs do you take in the village as a health activist?
3. : I arranged several of types of health awareness programs in the village. Such as ‘Healthy Child Competition’. Also, I gave some tips to the newlyweds about their family planning. I tell them the bad consequences of having early children. We keep the ‘Dohale Jevan‘(baby shower) program in the village. In this program, we provide information about how a pregnant woman should take care of herself. As there is not much awareness in rural people about health and Most of the diseases get spread through water in rainy season, so it is my responsibility to tell them the benefits of water filter, even sometimes I provide water filter elements like ‘Jeevan drop bottles’.
4. : What is the basic motive behind all your work?
5. :  To reduce in death rate in women and children, To Improve the health of rural women and children And most importantly, ‘I get satisfaction from all these things’!