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United News Agency PREVENTING PREGNANCY By T K Sreevalsan From the small operation theatre, Lalmuni Devi is being shifted along a grassy pathway under the afternoon sun. She is then helped to lie down on the carpeted floor of the 'pandal' already occupied by rows of more than 50 women -- all of them being provided medical care after tubectomy. Beneath the not-so-pleasing sight is a happy story of yet another rural woman getting her pregnancy prevention surgery done free of cost. All because of a non-governmental organisation engaged in family planning among the poor in the interior belts. It is not that 'Janani' always does its services without ''We are into social marketing and medical franchising. We leverage resources
from the private sector. Our services and products are only subsidised
and not free of cost,'' ''Gayatri Devi -- Darwa Chatti Gaon (village),'' comes an The hospital housing the camp at this tiny town in Vaishali district is franchised by Janani -- currently working in the backward states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh -- and given the brand name: Surya Clinic. Those undergoing surgery at the four-day camp have been referred by rural health practitioners (RHPs) and a team of volunteers functioning under Janani's grassroot-level unit called Titli Centre (TC). ''We gave the names 'surya' (sun) and 'titli' (butterfly) after a market research. We wanted them to be bring a bright and colourful image,'' informs Mr Gopalakrishnan, a one-time journalist working with the NGO since its inception. He attributes poverty and pathetic contraceptive prevalence rate as the
main reasons for Janani's concentration of work in Bihar, where it has
32,000 shops condoms and pills marketed by the NGO. Figures show that
Bihar has a per-capita income of only Rs 5,445 which is 30 per cent of
the national average, while its It has a growing network in Madhya Pradesh, and is aiming to spread across North India and eventually to other parts of the country. The TCs, managed on paying an annual membership fee of Rs 300 by the
RHPs and a female colleague (mostly spouse) who have been certified by
the NGO as its eligible workers for a year's time after giving lessons
at a refresher course, are in the highly interior pockets of the state.
So much so that a cluster of them are brought under an umbrella point
called Super Titli Centres (STCs). These are ''STCs, relatively nearer to main roads, help us ensure that the network
of supplying medicines and giving prescriptions is not snapped in times
of calamities like flood (a common feature in Bihar during monsoon months).
Our target is to set up 57,000 TCs in Bihar and Jharkhand so that each
village has a TC,'' says Mr Gopalakrishnan, whose NGO is affilated to
Washington-based charity Janani's awareness campaigns have evidently enabled villagers to embrace family planning measures in a bigger way. Mainly because, each case of sale and reference fetches the Janani worker a commission. Points out Arjun Thakur, an intermediate who runs an STC in nearby Abdulpur village comprising about 100 families: ''On an average, we sell two jars of condoms (totalling 120 pieces) a month.'' Chimes in his wife Rita Devi who has learnt to conduct pregnancy test: ''I have referred over eight cases to the Surya Clinic for tubectomy. Even yesterday, a woman came.'' At which Mr Gopalakrishnan hastens to add: ''We (Janani) don't accept everyone. Their haemoglobin level should be satisfactory.'' Surgeons at Surya Clinics also endorse that their income has gone up after becoming a franchisee of Janani. Dr M K Singh of the Surya Clinic here estimates that he performs an average of above 20 vasectomy operations a month. ''However, the number would dip too low during summer time,'' adds the middle-aged MBBS degree holder, who set up Surya Clinic last year after paying the customary fee of Rs 6,000 to Janani. In short, it is a win-win situation for all. For instance, the doctor
at the Surya Clinic is referred for more number of tubectomy, the subsidised
rate of which is Rs 499 vis-a-vis the market rate of Rs 900 to Rs 2000.
Of this, Rs 45 goes to the TC as incentive, Rs 10 to the STC and Rs five
to the clinic coordinator. Abortion of Sensing the degree of gender sensitivity in the case, Janani is planning to involve more number of women in its operations. Janani Assistant Manager (Training) Reetima Das says the NGO is to shortly organise a three-day workshop for female consultants. ''Again, there will be some fee charged,'' she adds. |
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