Govt to gift pregnancy test strips to rural brides

Call it a thoughtful wedding gift. The Government of India will give packets of pregnancy test strips to rural women on the occasion of their marriage—to reduce unwanted pregnancies and maternal mortality across India.

“It’s a known fact that 53 per cent of Indian women get married before reaching the legal age of 18 and have their first baby by 15 or 16 years of age. The problem is really huge in rural India,” the country’s Health Secretary Naresh Dayal said.

No wonder then that his department is working overtime to work out linkages to distribute the strips free of cost through Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) working at the village level.

According to Dayal, the government was initially targeting 18 high focus states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, and Meghalaya. The pregnancy test strips would be distributed first in these states.

“They are not aware about the complications of pregnancy. Many a time these are unwanted pregnancies,” he said adding that, “we want that women should know about their pregnancy status as soon as possible so that unwanted complications can be curbed.”

The Health Department is also organising training programmes for the ASHAs, who would flood the villages with these tool kits that would be manufactured by leading contraceptive manufacturer Hindustan Latex Limited (HLL).

The Government of India expects to roll out the scheme across the country within a few months.

Currently, 301 women out of every 100,000 giving birth die during either pregnancy or childbirth. The situation in some states is even worse—the maternal mortality ratio in Uttar Pradesh is 517 per 100,000 live births and 371 in Jharkhand.

“I think it will be a great idea to gift pregnancy strips to rural brides. I am sure it will improve the condition of maternal health. Our state certainly needs it,” Ranchi (Jharkhand) Division Commissioner Nidhi Khare said.

More than 70 per cent of girls in Jharkhand are married off at less than 18 years, while over 80 per cent women are anaemic, explained Khare, who was recently in Delhi.