With the state of Punjab recording 98.28 per cent of institutional deliveries, its 10 districts including Mohali, Amritsar and Bathinda, are still lagging in the same.

Taking serious note of the same, the Deputy Commissioners of these districts have been directed to hold meetings with the officials of the Health Department including Civil Surgeons, District Family Welfare Officers, ANMs or GNMs, Senior Medical Officers and other stakeholders.

“Expecting every district to ensure 100 percent institutional deliveries in the State, the Deputy Commissioners of these 10 districts, which are lagging in institutional deliveries, have been explicitly directed to hold meetings with the concerned Civil Surgeons, District Family Welfare Officers, ANMs or GNMs, Senior Medical Officers and other stakeholders like Anganvadi workers or helpers and ASHA workers to focus on pockets lacking in awareness on the issue and ensure that their district achieves 100 percent child births in health institutions,” said Tandrust Punjab Mission director Kahan Singh Pannu on Monday. Pannu said that the institutional deliveries, under the care and supervision of trained healthcare providers, promote the mother and child health and reduce the risk of neonatal and maternal mortality, and that was why cent percent institutional deliveries are targeted under the Tandrust Punjab Mission.

He informed that institutional deliveries in the state have improved considerably with a record 98.28 percent during current financial. “Up to the month of October 2019, nearly 3,496 births out of total 2,07,848 child births, took place in homes in Punjab which constitute to be 1.7 percent of the total deliveries,” he added.