Vadodara health office to keep track of migrant labourers’ movement

In regions like Naswadi,Kawant,Chhota Udepur and Pavi Jetpur,the Reproductive and Child Health department of the Vadodara District Health Office have begun making a concrete database of the number of children in each migrant family,especially of the newly weds and the expecting and pregnant women.

The database will have addresses of women in the areas,the place where they migrate to for work and the complete medical history of immunisation doses,iron and vitamin tablets and other medication they have undergone.

“One of the major reason of high IMR and MMR in migrant labours is discontinuation of immunisation and medication after the families migrate to newer places. Sometimes,the women fail to register their pregnancy and early medication is delayed after they move to a new place,” said R V Patel,Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) officer.

Most of the labourers from these four tribal regions mainly migrate to Rajkot,Amreli and Morbi after the monsoons (June) and return during Holi (March).

In the tracking system,the database of all such families will be directly forwarded to the Chief District Health Officer (CDHO) through an e-mail,the moment a family moves to a new area.

“These labourers follow a specific pattern every year and our Block Health Officers (BHOs) are aware of the migrant pattern. They (BHOs) have started compiling the database and it will be forwarded to the CDHOs this April,” said Patel.

Once in the jurisdiction,the CDHOs of the area will alert the respective BHOs,who will approach the migrant population and help them in continuing the immunisation and medication process as well as maintaining the chart given by the Vadodara District Health Office. According to the health officials,covering up the hiatus in medication will help bringing down IMR and MMR.

“There has been a very slow decline in the MMR and IMR in the state,but child health has many complex factors. If the project shows positive results in Vadodara,we will extend it to other districts having similar trends with the migrant labourers,” said Dr Vikas Desai,additional director,Family Welfare,Gujarat.