Works of the community toilet building, which was held up for a long time at Nellithuraimannam tribal settlement, have been expedited after a 34-year-old woman who died while giving birth to a baby in the open where she had gone to attend nature's call.
Sources from the tribal settlement, where 60 families of Malasar and Eravalar communities live, said the toilet works resumed from Thursday, a day after The Hindu reported the incident.
“The community toilet complex under construction has six units, which too is insufficient for 60 families. Workers had come to the settlement for two days. Around 20 % works are still pending,” said tribal activist S. Thanaraj, who brought out the plight of the woman.
Darez Ahamed, director of National Health Mission, Tamil Nadu, who conducted an inquiry into the incident has instructed health officials in the district to take all the necessary steps to avoid such incidents in the future.
Following instructions from Dr. Ahamed, the male baby was shifted to the neonatal ward of the Government Hospital in Pollachi on Thursday.
“The baby is very healthy and weighs 3.5 kg. The baby was given all necessary vaccinations. The newborn was also administered tetanus immunoglobulin as it was delivered in the open,” said P.G. Bhanumathi, Deputy Director of Health Services.
She said that many mothers volunteered to give breast milk for the baby apart from the breast milk the nursing staff gave to the child from the human milk bank.
Dr. Bhanumathi said the deceased S. Rekha had been hesitant to receive medical attention and used to hide herself in the jungle whenever health workers visited the settlement. She claimed that even the woman’s husband had come to know about the pregnancy only after seven months. Following the incident, village health nurses have been instructed to make frequent visits to Nellithuraimannam and other tribal settlements, to encourage pregnant women to have periodical check up and to take them to hospital for institutional delivery.
It was in the early hours of March 17, Rekha gave birth to the baby in the open, around 200 metres away from her house, where she had gone to attend nature's call.
The woman was found dead by her husband Subramani after he searched for her. The baby was found alive close to her.