DISCUSSION
The analysis of secondary data obtained from HMIS of Ministry of Health
& Family Welfare website for RCH programme India shows that the lock
down period & initial early phase of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic have a
negative impact over the delivery of RCH health services as well as the
indicators are also affected negatively.
Besides the pandemic India is also having lack of resources, manpower
poor infrastructure as well as positive deviance at community level.
These are the barriers in fact beside the epidemic. It seems that there
is lack of proper plan to deal with such pandemic situation. Providing
RCH (reproductive and child health) service is always a big concern for
populous nations particularly India with high levels of fertility.
During the pandemic era it’s more challenging to deliver such essential
services due to fear factors at community as well as personal level of
healthcare staff. Decreasing rate of immunisation can lead to emergence
of diseases which is being controlled by such programmes. At the same
time poor ANC services can put maternal as well as foetus life in
danger. The decrease in family planning services might add more to
ongoing population explosion putting more stress on available resources.
Although the Nation have imposed various measures but it seems to be
ineffective to get positive results on RCH programme. The need is to
develop a separate cadre for RCH services in order to reap the benefits
of demographic dividend in coming years. The Government of India should
develop a strong strategy to protect maternal and child health in
conditions of distress such as covid-19 pandemic. For this the barriers
and promoters of RCH programme needs to be dealt in proper way to
achieve the maximum output.
CONCLUSION: India has done a lot to deal with covid-19 pandemic
but it seems that insufficient attention have been paid to very
essential services such as RCH to give the desired results. The barriers
of healthcare system and delivery of services should be rectified added
with a proper dynamic plan to carry on usual health delivery services
even in pandemics & other situations of distress. The country needs to
develop an exclusive plan to tackle such situations to ensure delivery
of very essential services such as RCH during pandemics or any other
natural calamities.
- Establishment of exclusive Reproductive and child health department is
required at central level as well as at all the states and union
territories of India.
- Covid-19 pandemic has given us a lesson that we must have equity in
healthcare & the child and women’s who are considered most vulnerable
in situations of distress must have adequate supportive healthcare all
the times especially during pandemics and other natural calamities.
Women of reproductive age group and children’s constitutes a large
portion of population and the country and state must have a separate
department to ensure the delivery of health services to this
vulnerable section of the population.
- India being the second most populous country in the world should have
a robust population control strategy to operate in any situations.