SRINAGAR: A sessions court Kupwara on Saturday directed Chief Medical Officer of district Kupwara to conduct a survey through ASHA workers for verifying the number of pregnant women in every locality of the district to ensure women receive proper health care facilities during and after delivery.
The direction was passed after Advocate Mir Umar told the court that district Kupwara is one of the hilly areas which lacks basic facilities like transportation and medical facilities.
He told the court due to COVID-19 women folk of the district are in fear and chaos as almost 100 women in the district have tested positive for the deadly virus.
“They have to walk on foot to avail medical facilities and in this crisis when these women need more attention and care, there is no facility available,” Advocate Umar said.
The court of principal district and sessions judge while hearing the matter remarked that nobody would realise, know and understand the pain of losing the child except parents and keeping the child inside the womb by a mother is itself a long and painful journey.
It was said by court that whenever a pregnant woman visits hospital/healthcare institutions for routine check-up, health care centre and administration are under legal and moral duty to take good care and protection of both the lives of mother and the baby.
The court directed Deputy Commissioner Kupwara and Chief Medical officer to devise a mechanism to facilitate free of cost transportation of pregnant women to health care institutions without any delay.
It was also directed by court to DC Kupwara, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) and CMO, Kupwara to work in tandem to ensure that pregnant women and their family members shall face no barrier or obstruction or difficulty in visiting hospitals or clinics for regular check-up or at the stage of delivery and post- delivery consultation.
Meantime in a related case, the Principal district and Sessions judge directed District Disaster Management authority Kupwara to provide necessary PPE kits, hand gloves, sanitizers, masks and other necessary and essential equipment to the frontline workers like police personnel, doctors, para-medical officials and municipality officials without any unnecessary delay.
It was said that police being the frontline warriors are not only involved in receiving the travellers and the locals who return from other parts of the country but they are also engaged in facilitating the exit of migrant labourers as a result of which the workload for the police personnel has multiplied manifolds.
In order to deal with the demanding situation and to combat the spread of Coronavirus infection, police personnel are required to be fully equipped with all the necessary equipment so that on one hand they can save millions of lives and on the other save themselves from getting infected by the deadly disease.

NUSRAT SIDIQ