The Peripheral Centre: Voices from India's Northeast by Preeti Gill

Author:Preeti Gill [Gill, Preeti]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zubaan
Published: 2015-05-12T00:00:00+00:00

16

‘EVEN IF WE SHOUT THERE IS NO ONE TO HEAR’

Reproductive Health Issues among the Marginalized Population of Nagaland*

RUPA CHINAI

Busy hands prepare a woman for a Caesarian section in the Zunheboto district hospital situated in the remote hills of Nagaland. Her delivery is two weeks overdue. Her face is covered by a mask which is sprinkled with ether. She writhes in agony till she loses consciousness. This primitive, highly risky, ‘open air anaesthesia’ is routine in the hospital.

The hospital has not owned a single cylinder of oxygen over the past 12 years. If the woman’s pulse rate weakens or she has a cardiac arrest, there is no apparatus to monitor her, or make breathing easier.

The mother and baby are lucky to survive the ordeal. But many women among the Nagas, the indigenous people who form most of the state’s population, are not so fortunate and succumb to the gross inadequacies in health infrastructure and care in the state. Maternal and infant mortality rates continue to be high, despite the state government’s claims to the contrary.

The numbers game

If Nagaland’s official records are to be believed, health indicators in this remote hilly state surpass even that of the affluent Scandinavian countries. The health department in the state capital of Kohima claims that maternal mortality is below one per 1,00,000, while infant mortality is 7 per 1,000 live births. The female literacy rate is said to be 55.7 per cent and immunization coverage is 60 per cent. A senior health official says: ‘Our women are strong, they have stamina. They hardly ever go to a doctor with complications. They deliver their children safely at home.’

The state’s complacency is at variance with the Second National Family Health Survey for 1998–99, that reveals that less than 20 per cent of women in Nagaland receive any ante-natal care, and only 14 per cent of children receive their complete course of vaccination. Hospital-based data does not reflect the reality of illness and death taking place in the villages, independent researchers say. Patients have no faith in the services there and come only when they are really critical.

In the rural districts there is no system of record keeping unless a patient reports to the government hospital—and that seldom happens. Access to health services remains difficult because of the long distances patients have to travel, compounded by the absence of roads and transportation. Death or birth certificates are not issued.

In this scenario, the only sources with access to some figures are the churches and women’s organizations. The Konyak Baptist Church, with 45,000 members belonging to the Konyak tribe, the largest among Nagaland’s 15 indigenous groups, reveals that 384 women died in Mon district in 1998, mostly, it is said, in childbirth. Members of the Konyak Women’s Association in Aboi block point to the large number of infant and child deaths over two years since 1997. Compounding the problem of high maternal and infant deaths is the high rate of miscarriages in the state, most of which are of course unreported.

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