With no roads to nearest PHC, tribal couple loses newborn baby

A young couple from the Khond tribal community in Andhra Pradesh lost their newborn baby as they were unable to reach the Primary Health Centre (PHC) in time, due to poor road connectivity. According to the father, Shashi, his wife Kamala gave birth to the baby prematurely on Tuesday, February 21, and both the mother and child required urgent medical assistance. However, the nearest motorable road from their house in Arla Panchayat in Rolugunta mandal was three kilometres away, and Shashi was forced to carry Kamala and the baby on foot with the help of local residents. By the time they arrived at the PHC, the baby had already died. 

According to Shashi (27), his 20-year-old wife Kamala gave birth to their first baby in their home in the tribal hamlet of Arla panchayat. The baby was born premature, and Shashi told TNM that the baby refused to be breastfed and that Kamala developed severe body pain after the birth. Upon calling the nearest PHC, the couple was instructed to reach there by hailing a private auto rickshaw, which the PHC would pay for. However, in order to get the auto rickshaw, Shashi would have to carry his wife and child for seven kilometres till the nearest motorable road. In a bid to reduce the distance, he, along with other residents, carried Kamala and the baby through the forest for three kilometres on a makeshift stretcher. 

“We reached the PHC in Butchayyapeta which is 15 kilometres away from my village. However, our baby was pronounced dead by then,” Shashi told TNM. He added that Kamala is admitted at the PHC as her haemoglobin levels dropped. 

“A total of 250 people live in the villages that make up Arla Panchayat. The villages, however, do not have an Anganwadi central. No school is present. There are no roads. After carving Anakapalle from Visakhapatnam, we submitted a memorandum to the district collector and symbolically staged a protest with makeshift stretchers. Still there are no roads,” Andhra Pradesh Fifth Schedule Sadhana Committee District President K Govinda Rao told TNM.