Related Topic in KAS Prelims Syllabus:
Science and Technology [Paper-II]: Public Health and Community Medicine, Health Care
News
- The findings of the Jaccha-Baccha Survey (JABS) were released recently.
About the Survey
- It was conducted by student volunteers in June 2019.
- The survey took place in six states namely Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh.
- The aim of the survey was to map the state of pregnant and nursing women and was conducted under the guidance of development economists Jean Dreze and Reetika Khera.
- In each state, the survey teams visited 10 to 12 randomly-selected ‘anganwadis’ and interviewed as many as possible of the 342 pregnant and 364 nursing women covered by the anganwadi scheme.
- The survey divided the six states into laggard (Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh) and leader states (Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha).
Key Findings
- Less than half of pregnant women in rural India eat nutritious food and majority are deprived of quality health care.
- Uttar Pradesh, which is India’s most populous, performed the worst, while Himachal Pradesh performed the best.
- UP threw up the worst numbers on pregnant women not getting adequate rest — either because they had no one to help out at home, or because they had to actually go out and work on the farm in their condition.
- The proportion of women who had to borrow or sell assets just to meet child delivery expenses was quite high, especially among the laggard states.
- On access to basic healthcare facilities, the survey found that 36% women in UP did not get a single check-up at a primary health centre across different schemes.
- The States which has a separate state-run maternal benefits scheme performed better on social indicators pertaining to health of women and children, as opposed to those that are fully dependant on the central government.
