KCR Kits benefit urban districts most

Hyderabad: Come June 2, KCR Kits- the pet scheme of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao giving financial aid and gift hampers to pregnant women and new born babies will be completing one year since it was launched.

With the government according top priority to the scheme to go with a good budget allocation and release of funds from time to time, the institutional deliveries have gone up considerably in the last 12 months.

The institutional deliveries in state-run hospitals were just 30 per cent before this scheme was introduced. However, in the last one-year, the number increased to 52 per cent. Nearly 2.3 lakh KCR Kits were distributed across the state in last one year. Earlier, the practice was to look up to private hospitals for deliveries.

However, with the government launching the scheme, pregnant women and their families are queuing up in front of government hospitals and PHCs (primary health centres) in all districts.

Not only people in rural areas, even pregnant women from urban areas are showing interest to undergo deliveries in government hospitals and health centres despite the presence of private maternity and corporate hospitals in their vicinity.

In fact, the highest number of beneficiaries of KCR Kits in the last year are from urban parts of the state. Hyderabad (over 41,000) and Warangal Urban (13,000) are placed in the top-2 positions closely followed by Mahbubnagar, Sangareddy and Nizamabad districts.

Jangaon, Mahabubabad, Komaram Bheem-Asifabad and Medchal-Malkajgiri are at the bottom of the list with under three thousand institutional deliveries in the last 12 months.

Elaborating details about the success of the scheme in Mahbubnagar district, DMHO (District Medical and Health Officer) Dr Rajini said that financial incentives being offered by the government (Rs 15,000 for a new born girl and Rs 14,000 for a boy), improved facilities and treatment being offered in state hospitals and centres, continuous monitoring from pregnancy state till delivery and during vaccination has led to change in mindset of the families and hence more faith is being shown in government hospitals.

"In Mahbubnagar, we prepare EDD (Expected Date of Delivery) of every pregnant woman visiting our hospitals and centres. Every month, we have an EDD list and our staff would be reaching out to them asking them to undergo institutional deliveries in our hospitals. We have EDD for June month which we would be focussing on from the first till the end of the month. Every month, nearly 1200 to 1500 deliveries are being done in Mahbubnagar district alone," the DMHO said.

By Mahesh Avadhutha