Tandarust Punjab Mission Director, K S Pannu on October 22 said that Punjab is performing well in case of institutional deliveries but it can be improved further.

According to him, it is painful that still some deliveries are happening in the homes especially in the last years of second decade of 21st century when medical facilities have reached every nook and corner of the State. “Home deliveries put the health and life of the mother and the child to risk, so under Tandarust Punjab Mission we will endeavour to check the tendency towards home deliveries," Mr Pannu informed.

He said that the child birth data from April to August 2018 reveals that 3600 out of total 1,37,742 child births took place in Punjab homes, which constitutes 2.6 per cent of the total deliveries. There is a great disparity between district-wise percentage of home deliveries which ranges somewhere between 7.7 per cent to 0.1 per cent.

Adding more to his statement, Mr Pannu said that the percentage of home deliveries in districts having ample obstetric services and high per capita income like Ludhiana is 7.7 per cent while that in Mansa is 0.3 per cent. So, the economic status or availability of health services are not the only determinants of low institutional delivery rates but awareness is also a key factor and we under Tandarust Punjab Mission will focus on the same.

To begin with, a letter has already been written to all the Deputy Commissioners in the state, supported with the district-wise home/institutional delivery data.Subsequently, the DCs would chalk out plan of action with the aim of the safe motherhood and greater child survival rate. The data of districts with higher incidence of home deliveries would be regularly monitored to maintain a constant vigil over the scenario,he informed.

The districts requiring more efforts include Ludhiana, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Tarntaran, SAS Nagar, Bathinda, Fatehgarh Sahib and Amritsar while moderate work is needed in Faridkot, Gurdaspur, Moga, Barnala, Pathankot, Jalandhar, Muktsar and Kapurthala .
While the relatively better performing districts with home deliveries below one per cent include Rupnagar, Sangrur, Hoshiarpur, Mansa, Nawanshahr and Patiala each.