How Biriya delivered safely : A Unique Project in Madhya Pradesh for safe childbirth

Authored By : Mr. Kounteya Sinha, Health Editor, The Times of India
12 Feb 2012, TOI Crest Edition
A unique project in MP ensures that even women who live in remote tribal villages are only a phone call away from safe childbirth.

Scenario 1 

Time: 1.40 am February 6 
Deepak Tiwari, posted at Mandla district hospital’s 24X7 call centre, receives a call informing him that Biriyabai from the tribal village of Sarra has gone into labour. He immediately dispatches an ambulance. At 2.30 am, Biriya arrives at the Nainpur community health centre (CHC), 32 km from her home, and safely delivers a baby girl. 
Scenario 2
Time: 1.05 am February 4 
Shiv Kali Maravi from Bamnigaon is in labour. Her family calls Rameshwar Khudape who is now manning the same call center. An ambulance is dispatched. At 2.16 am, the patient reaches the CHC at Niwas, 33 km away. Soon after, Maravi gives birth to a baby boy. 

While new born babies continue to die in hospitals across West Bengal — a tragedy that chief minister Mamata Banerjee calls “fictional,” drama of a different kind is being played out in Madhya Padesh’s remote villages — one that can teach Banerjee a lot.
A fleet of 669 ambulances and 176 staffers in 48 call centres across 50 districts of Madhya Pradesh are working 24x7 to maximise institutional deliveries in distant tribal villages of the state. Jointly run by the state government in association with Unicef, Janani Express is now a major success story in the field of public health. The results talk for themselves. 

'This is a profound moment in the history of immunisation'

Author : Mr.Kounteya Sinha,Times of India,8 Feb 2012

Mr.Seth Berkley, CEO,
    Global Alliance for Vaccines
and Immunisation (GAVI)

Seth Berkley is CEO of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), a public private partnership dedicated to spreading immunisation across the world. Bringing together developing nations with donors, vaccine industries with international organisations like the WHO and Unicef and philanthropists like the Gates Foundation with civil society, Berkley spoke with Kounteya Sinha about the exciting moment we are witnessing in global health today, growing equity between rich and poor nations in health – and how a shot in the arm could save a child’s life: 
The detailed interview can be read below:

Sick New Born Care Unit (SNCU) in the District Hospital of Mandla- A Case from Field

Under the IGNOU-UNICEF Partnership Project on Routine Immunization for Media Engagement, a group of 4 National Media from TOI, Amar Ujala, Prabhat Khabar and Bag Radio recently visited Mandla Tribal District in MP on 19-20 January, facilitated by UNICEF.

This article is contributed by Mr. Nitin Yadav, Senior Sub Editor, Amar Ujala, reporting after coming back from Mandla.

Mandla Article,Amar Ujala