M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, July 11: The long-overdue recognition and respect to the barefoot health workers, known as ‘Sahiyas’, was given to them in Daltonganj today on the occasion of World Population Day.
The Palamu Civil Surgeon Dr Anil Kumar, District Programme Manager Deepak Gupta and their team publicly acknowledged the importance of Sahiyas in the management of public health.
Speaking to lagatar24.com, Dr Anil Kumar said, “No one among us and no one in the public can afford to overlook the role these Sahiyas play in making an outreach of health plans or measures in the far-flung areas.”
“Our Sahiyas did a wonderful job during the Covid pandemic. They were very helpful in the district-wise immunisation drive,” reminded the civil surgeon.
“Sahiyas are our extended face of district health management who knows every house visit them and motivate and persuade them to follow health advice,” added Dr Anil Kumar.
According to the CS, Sahiyas are the ground warrior who although not knows much about the intricacies of the health issues, their grip on the families and the bond that they have with the families are outstanding.
The civil surgeon said today is the world population day and eligible couples are our cynosure.
The Sahiyas have been asked by the CS and his team to prevail upon the eligible couples how to limit their families by adopting simple and effective family planning measures.
There are right now 4,41,239 eligible couples in Palamu, according to the district programme manager Deepak Gupta.
Elaborating on this figure, the CS said this is a calculation which is drawn at 90 percent of the total population of this district.
Dr Anil Kumar further explained that only 3.33 percent of the eligible couples are expected to add to the population but they exclude 0.33 percent and stick to only 3 percent for various reasons of pregnancies not fructifying till their mature term.
The civil surgeon admitted males skip family planning. “This is sad,” he said. He said vasectomy is a non-starter since this April. Its target is 833.
As regards to tubectomy target of 13,000, Palamu has done 312.
“We have been asking our fleet of medical officers in charge of the community health centres to motivate and promote both measures of family planning for males and females,” said the CS.
The other gracing point of the function held on World Population Day was the presence of the elected top representatives of the Zila Parishad.
