New district, old sufferings: with no road access, it’s touch-and-go for the sick in Andhra Pradesh’s tribal region

Even after 75 years of Independence, there are a number of villages in the agency areas of Alluri Sitharama Raju district that are not connected by road

On October 13, 23-year-old Korra Radha of Gaduthuru panchayat of G. Madugula mandal in the newly carved out Alluri Sitharama Raju (ASR) district of Andhra Pradesh, developed labour pains around 4 a.m. The nearest Public Health Centre (PHC) from her village is at Vasumamidi, which is around 20 km away, and there is no road access from her village to the PHC. The family members assembled a makeshift ‘ doli’ and four members of the family placed Ms. Radha on it and started the arduous trek of 20 km at 8 a.m.

When they were just half-way through, Radha delivered of a baby boy in the doli and her condition started to deteriorate. After a non-stop journey, they finally reached the PHC around 1 p.m., where the doctor completed the procedure and saved her and the child.

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But S. Ramulamma (62) of Rajakillam village of Pinnakota panchayat of Anantagiri mandal was not that lucky. A sick Ms. Ramulamma struggled to reach the PHC at Balagaruvu, which is about 7 km from her village in a doli, where she was given the basic treatment, but died before she could reach King George Hospital in Visakhapatnam district, as the PHC had referred her to the hospital as her case was a bit serious.

Even after 75 years of Independence, an occasion that is being celebrated across the country as ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’, there are a number of villages in the agency areas of ASR district, which were earlier in Visakhapatnam district, that are not connected by any form or road.

Tribal people who are sick, including pregnant women, are shifted in these makeshift dolis and the bearers have to undergo an arduous trek of 10-20 km, braving bad weather, cross hillocks, trek through thickly forested tracts and at times wade through waist-deep flowing rivulets and streams.

Unable to bear the journey, there are a number of occasions when pregnant women have given birth en route and the sick have died.