Nagpur: Despite a near total shift of home deliveries into institutional (hospital) deliveries, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli still have home deliveries. Gadchiroli tops the six districts in Nagpur circle with as much as 6% home deliveries whereas Chandrapur is comparatively much better with 1% home deliveries.These figures suggest that the health department has still a long way to go in improving the maternal health in these two districts. The other four districts in circle, Nagpur, Wardha, Bhandara and Gondia have 100% deliveries in hospitals (both government and private).In Maharashtra in the year 2017-18 (April to March) a total of 12,63,274 deliveries took place. These included 6,98,677 in government institutes and 5,51,777 in private hospitals. And of these 1,14,102 occurred in Nagpur circle which included 87,915 (77.05%) in government institutions and 24,849 (21.78%) in private hospitals.In last one year 12,820 deliveries took place in homes in Nagpur circle. Of these 1,338 happened in Nagpur circle’s six districts. But of these 1,338 home deliveries as many as 1,065 (6%) are from Gadchiroli district alone while other 145 (1%) are from Chandrapur district. The number of home deliveries in other districts in this period are — Nagpur 35, Wardha 20, Bhandara 38 and Gondia 35.One of the biggest reasons cited by health department as well as private medical practitioners in these two districts, especially Gadchiroli is the inaccessibility of health system to the remote villages. Gadchiroli otherwise also remains a neglected district as far as health department is concerned, said a private practitioner from the health department. “Had it not been for the Bangs and the Amtes, 80% of the population in Gadchiroli district would have had no access to health services at all. It is only for them that the birth rate has improved so much in the district and the adivasis or tribals are getting health care,” he admitted.The health officials, not willing to be quoted, however, said that all the home deliveries in Gadchiroli district happened only in the rainy season, the four months when a lot of villages are completely cut off and are non accessible.

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