The much-loved KCR Kits scheme, the innovative flagship initiative of the former BRS government in Telangana, aimed at encouraging pregnant women to opt for government hospitals for safe delivery, has been stalled in all government Maternal Child Health (MCH) facilities and tertiary maternity hospitals at Sultan bazaar and Petlaburj in Hyderabad and even in districts.
For the last three months, the KCR Kit, replete with goodies for mother and the baby, which used to be handed over to new mothers during their discharge from Government hospitals in Telangana State is not being distributed anymore.
The State health department has not supplied a single KCR Kit to couples, even as they wait for the promised phone call from the hospital authorities. The senior and junior management of the Government maternal health care facilities also have no idea whether the scheme will be continued or replaced by another one.
At the newly launched MCH (Maternal Child Health) centre in Gandhi
Hospital, there is no stock left of such kits anymore. Senior doctors from the hospital said that the State government has to provide some clarity on the issue and decide whether they want to continue with the initiative, as pregnant women and their families keep asking about them.
“During discharge, they took our contact details and promised to distribute it once the fresh stock of kits arrived. However, I already delivered a baby here and today is the post-delivery check-up. Neither have I received the cash component of Rs 13, 000 nor have I received the special kit,” says Vennella, a new mother from Yadadri, who came all the way to MCH facility at Gandhi Hospital because of her high-risk status.
Senior doctors from Maternity Hospitals in Sultan Bazaar, Petlaburj and MCH facility at Gandhi Hospital, pointed out that for the past 12 to 18 months, the cash component linked to the KCR Kits initiative had already stopped. And now, there is no stock left of the actual KCR kits with any hospital in Telangana.