Government abandons ‘Arogya Mahila’ scheme

‘Arogya Mahila’ scheme aimed at addressing the medical needs of women, has been abandoned in all government health care facilities in Telangana State

Hyderabad: The comprehensive women’s health programme ‘Arogya Mahila’ scheme aimed at addressing the medical needs of women, has been abandoned in all government health care facilities in Telangana State.

While the State government has scrapped the initiative, in lieu, it is yet to frame or launch a scheme that is aimed at addressing and improving the health-seeking behaviour of women, providing a secure and private environment for women to approach medical facilities and sensitize government medical staff to the needs of women, which was the role of Arogya Mahila.

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All the tertiary care hospitals including OGH, Gandhi Hospital, Urban Primary Health Centres (Basthi Dawakhanas) and district hospitals in Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana State are not holding the weekly once-exclusive clinics for women.

Exclusive once-in-a-week OPs ensured women had no inhibitions and would attend in large numbers to undergo physical tests for the detection of cancers at an early stage. Vital cancer diagnostic services to identify cervical and breast cancer were available on the appointed day at the government healthcare facility.

In fact, within a month or two of the Arogya Mahila initiative, that was launched in March 2023 (on the occasion of Women’s Day), the project became a major public health care scheme for early detection of cancers among women. In addition to diagnosing chronic ailments like diabetes, hypertension, thyroid etc, the Arogya Mahila scheme started playing a vital role in conducting basic early diagnostic tests to identify suspected cases of breast cancer, cervical cancers and oral cancers among women.

Exclusive outpatient clinics were being operated under Arogya Mahila initiative to conduct eight different kinds of tests that were focused on checking their overall health and later refer them to higher health care facilities. The OP clinic conducted Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA) for cervical cancer suspected oral or breast cancer cases and then referred to a higher care facilities (to which they were attached) to undergo mammogram, ultrasound, Colposcopy, Cryotherapy, pap smear/ biopsy/ FNAC (Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology) to detect tumours.