A tribal woman in Maharashtra gave birth in transit after being carried in a makeshift stretcher (dholi) due to lack of proper roads. Patikacha Pada in Maharashtra’s Thane district gave birth to a girl in transit on Sunday. According to a villager and ASHA worker who spoke to a national daily, the woman, who is a tribal, was being brought in a dholi late in the morning by her relatives and some villagers. Around noon, the woman gave birth to a baby girl, the villager said. The video of the woman giving birth in the makeshift stretcher has gone viral online.
The woman and her baby were then taken to Kasara’s primary health centre in a private car. One of the villagers said that they had to cross streams and tough terrain to get the woman and her baby to the nearest public health centre from their village. “Fortunately, an assistant social health worker came with us and assisted in the delivery,” he added. The villagers said that their village had been adopted by the Chief Minister when he was in charge of Thane’s guardian minister.
The mother and the baby are safe and stable, the health worker said.
In a similar incident, a 21-yr-old tribal woman had given birth to a baby in a dense forest area while being carried in a dholi in a village in Maharashtra’s Palghar district last month.
In the absence of proper road connectivity , the family members had to walk through a dense forest at 3 am in the morning for about 5 km.
On September 1, a woman had died in similar circumstances at Dharmipada in Thane district. She lost her child due to absence of road connectivity and proper medical facilities. She was carried on a bedsheet through a forest area. By the time they reached the hospital, the child died.