The incident took place on Monday in a remote village of Chhattisgarh’s Surajpur district.
Raipur:
In a telling incident about the state of roads in Chhattisgarh and accessibility to healthcare services in its remote tribal pockets, an ailing woman and her newborn baby had to be carried down a mountainous track, in a wicker basket tied to a bamboo stick for 15 km, to the nearest motorable road, from where an ambulance drove them 10 km to the nearest hospital.
It took the mother and child three hours to cover a distance of 25km because no road leads up to their village in Surajpur district, some 350 km from state capital Raipur.
Two days after the incident took place in Surajpur’s Odgi development block, the district administration today said it has decided to construct roads here under the MNREGA scheme.
Odgi borders Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, and is surrounded by dense forests with rough terrain where small rivulets flow during the monsoon.
This makes the area completely non-motorable and it was not possible for the ambulance to reach Baijanpath village, officials said.
According to the family of 22-year-old woman Ramdasiya, she had been unwell since the beginning of this month when she gave birth.
On August 4 as well, when Ramdasiya was in labour, villagers had to carry her down on a charpoy.
“On Monday, her condition deteriorated. We called the local health centre, placed Ramdasiya and the child in a basket, two people balanced it on a bamboo stick and walked down to the ambulance parked in the neighbouring village of Khohir,” woman’s husband Krishna Prasad Yadav said.
“The villagers had to carry the woman and the child to the nearest motorable road, from where they were taken in an ambulance to the nearest Biharpur community health centre,” Surajpur Chief Medical and Health Officer Dr Ransai Singh told news agency PTI, adding that the health of the mother and child are stable.
Citing the difficulties faced by them, especially during the monsoon, the villagers have demanded construction of roads.
Surajpur Collector Ranbir Sharma has assured that he will visit Baijanpath village in the next two-three days.
“There are around 15 villages in Odgi block which do not have motorable connectivity. I have discussed the issue with the public works and other concerned departments. We will construct roads in the area under the MNREGA,” he said.
