Institutional Deliveries: A Study of a Slum in District Pathankot, Punjab

The National Health Mission (NHM), a centrally sponsored programme started by the Government of India emphasizes Institutional Deliveries to reduce maternal mortality rate. It has many components and one of the main components of the Mission is Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) which aimed to provide safe motherhood and implement other interventions related to mothers and child under NHM. The main objective of JSY is to reduce maternal mortality and neo-natal mortality by promoting institutional deliveries among the pregnant women, in particular the poor women. It also promises incentives and other related services for the beneficiaries and the facilitators.

In view of the fact that the programme was initiated in 2005, it is significant to assess how far the JSY has been successful in providing its services in newly carved out district Pathankot of Punjab. Further, it is also important to examine firstly what role do the Accredited Social Health Activists play as facilitators to make health services accessible to the beneficiaries and how efficacious they have been in extending their services for institutional deliveries. The present paper is an attempt to find out the possible causes due to which institutional deliveries are not preferred in the slum area of district Pathankot, Punjab. On the bases of responses received both from the health care facilitators and the beneficiaries during the survey, the paper also aims to arrive ata list of viable recommendations to strengthen the health care delivery system at the levels of Community and Primary Health Centres.