People in the tribal hamlets of Anaikatti are ready to take proper medication but are forced to resort to home medicines due to the absence of health facility. There is only one primary health centre at Jammukundi for entire region in Anaikatty comprising of several villages. Some of the children have missed immunization date because of lack of accessibility to the hospitals.“My husband was away for work and I got labor pain. I had no one to take me to the hospital and my neighbors decided to help me at home. I have given immunization to my kid and missed the last one, as I couldn’t reach the immunization centre. My child was declared to be underweight and nurse provided multigrain health mix (sathu maavu). It got over and I have to travel long to reach the hospital,” Rani M, a mother of a 3-year-old girl, said.Another mother told that she couldn’t take health supplements regularly because she cannot afford the travel expenses to reach the hospital.“I would get the supplements provided by the social workers or village health nurse once in a month. They are not accessible every time. My four-and-half-year-old son was declared to be underweight. I don’t have enough money for regular checkups,” she added.Another woman in Koodanur village at Anaikatty said that most of the people in the village are aware of the health issues and are compromised to take medical support.“I have four daughters. I delivered three girls at home with the help of my neighbors and my mother-in-law. I went to hospital for giving birth to my fourth child as I had the facility. There were no hospitals earlier, but once the private hospital – Bethany came, I went to the hospital. My daughters delivered their kids in the hospital and they are aware about immunization and pregnancy care available at the hospitals,” Maruthamma K, 50, said.An official in the area said the PHC, which was earlier located on the main road, was shifted inside as it was not a government property. The government-allotted PHC building is now opened away from the main road. However, 70% people had started coming to the health centres in case of illness.The official also said it is practically impossible to roam around with immunizing medicines due to technical issues to maintain them in cool temperature. Hence, the people must make themselves available at common centres to get immunization.The government official said that they had opened the PHC in Jammukundi only to help the tribal community that earlier had no medical access.“There are 328 sub-centres in Coimbatore and usually 4 to 6 sub-centres will be allotted with one PHC. We have provided a PHC at Jammukundi only for one sub-centre to help the tribal community. We are not in a position to provide one health centre for one village. One PHC would be allotted for 20,000 people. We have planned to improvise and within a year, the infrastructure and facilities would become very good.”

Stay updated with all the Coimbatore Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.