Bilaspur. The Chhattisgarh High Court, while hearing the case of a woman giving birth to a child on the floor in a health center in Surguja district, has taken suo motu cognizance and has summoned the reply from the Health Secretary. Its next hearing will be on June 14.
The High Court has taken suo motu cognizance of the matter as a public interest litigation based on a news item published in a newspaper on June 10.
According to the newspaper, a 25-year-old pregnant woman gave birth to her child on the floor of the Navanagar sub-health center in Surguja district on June 8 without the presence of any doctor or nurse. When the woman had labor pains, she reached the sub-health center with a Mitanin (community health worker), but there was neither a doctor nor a nurse there. The woman had to give birth to the child on the floor of the sub-health center. According to the newspaper, the family members tried to contact the medical workers but did not get any satisfactory answer. Finally, the Mitanin helped the woman to give birth to the child.
According to the newspaper, post-delivery care was also done by the traditional midwife of the village as only one Class IV employee was available in the health centre. The news also stated that this was not the first time such an incident had happened. Taking suo motu cognizance of the incident, the High Court said that if this is the situation of Sub-Health Centre, Navanagar, Ambikapur, then it is a very regrettable situation.
The High Court said that when the government is spending huge amounts of money to provide medical facilities to the people living in remote areas of the state, then the officers and employees responsible for managing the health centers are not present there themselves, even though they are needed the most there. The High Court has said that in such a situation, the state government should take some strict steps.
The state government said that the medical officer related to this incident has been suspended with immediate effect.
After the hearing on Monday, a division bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Sachin Singh Rajput has directed the Secretary of the Health and Family Welfare Department to file his personal affidavit regarding the steps taken in connection with the incident and ensure that the video of this incident which has gone viral online is also stopped from further dissemination immediately. The incident took place on June 8 at the Primary Health Center Navanagar and the next day the Block Medical Officer of the concerned area, Dr. P N Rajwade, was suspended after being found prima facie negligent in the discharge of his duties.