It is a known fact that a large number of women and children in India and other developing countries face a number of health-related issues. The problem is severe in the rural parts of the country where there is an urgent need to promote the maternal health and welfare of children, especially infants. The importance of a nutritional diet during pre-natal period, the anxiety and depression during postpartum, and the care of an infant, especially in the first 12 months are some of the major issues which need our immediate attention and action.
It is important to identify the problems related to the health and nutrition of both mothers and children, especially in the interiors of the country where there is a lack of education and awareness. It can be done this work by establishing a platform where women health workers can collaborate and help mothers and children.
How to promote health
The first and foremost issue is to identify the needy and their needs. Workers do this by organizing families and collecting data about married couples. Aanganwadi workers can gather families and make them aware of the importance of pre-natal and postpartum care. ASHA workers can organize households and keep track of the health-related problems faced by new mothers and children. ANM workers can make a record of a married couple and identify the couples eligible for benefits from that list. The data is then internally shared between the groups and based on it, a roadmap is then prepared.
Obstacles
The first step after the identification of the families is to categorize them into groups – based on their priority and needs. One cannot ignore the fact that while delivering the service, the frontline workers have to tackle some obstacles. Due to poor planning and demographical condition, it is difficult to track the houses and families. Most of the rural areas do not have maps, which makes it tough for frontline workers to deliver the services.
Lack of opportunities
There are not many opportunities for the workers to create awareness and educate people about the issues. It is because there are no such platforms in many of the villages. One of the major issues that make things soar is that every individual has their own way of working and sometimes it gets difficult for the frontline workers to be in synchronization with each other. It is not easy to win the trust of communities. There are times when communities do not cooperate and even resist getting any kind of services from outsiders.
