Sylhet Bureau :
A Sharing meeting was held with trained community health workers from the tea gardens and the Patra community of Sylhet and representatives of various sectors working in family planning in Sylhet on maternal and adolescent reproductive health services. This meeting was held at the Family Planning District Office in Sylhet city at 12 noon on Wednesday (July 8).The Ethnic Community Development Organization (ECDO) organized this meeting under the project to improve maternal and adolescent reproductive health in the tea gardens and the Patra community of Sylhet. In this meeting, responsible representatives from various sectors of family planning, trained community health workers from the tea gardens and the Patra community and tea workers discussed their activities and problems.
The organizers said that female tea workers in the tea gardens of Sylhet are deprived of minimum healthcare. However, in order to ensure that they are not deprived of maternal health care, 25 women from the tea gardens and the Patra community of Tukerbazar and Khadimnagar unions of Sylhet were trained with the help of IPASS Bangladesh. This exchange meeting was held to coordinate with the family planning workers at the field level and inform them about other family planning services.
In the meeting, Shayanmoni Goala, the midwife in charge of Kewachhara and Daldoli tea gardens, said that no female tea workers come to receive prenatal care. Then Geeta Munda of Daldoli tea gardens immediately protested and said, I live in Daldoli tea gardens. I have a child. When I was pregnant, I never saw you come to the garden to provide services. Rather, I came to know today that you are the midwife in charge of our garden.
Priti Das Deepa of Kewachhara tea gardens said, I just came to know in this meeting that there is a medical facility next to Kewachhara garden. Kewachhara has a midwife. Like me, most of the tea workers in Kewachhara tea gardens do not know about these government health services. We are members of a tea worker family. We rarely go outside the gardens. But no government official comes to our gardens and tells us anything about easy access to health services. A few days ago, ECDO trained us on health services. Then we learned about family planning methods, MR services, and prenatal services. Now, if there are problems in my neighborhood, I send pregnant women to the hospital. I tell the women in the gardens about taking care of the baby’s umbilical cord.
In the meeting, the responsibilities of various family planning sectors mentioned their many limitations and said that 22 health workers are needed in 11 tea gardens in Sylhet. But there are only three. The manpower is very low, and like other areas, they face various problems in providing services to tea gardens. Therefore, coordination between the government and the private sector is needed so that tea workers get the right service. And tea workers need to be made aware.
Deputy director of Sylhet District Family Planning Md. Niazur Rahman attend the meeting as a chief guest. ECDO Executive Director Laxmikant Singh presided over the meeting.
Various family planning activities were presented and various questions related to this were answered by District Family Planning Assistant Director Biswajit Krishna Chakraborty. Sylhet Sadar Upazila MOMCH Dr. Suborna Roy Tuli, IPASS Bangladesh Coordinator Md. Burhan Mridha, Sylhet Sadar Upazila Family Planning Officer Abul Mansur Asjad also spoke the meeting . Deputy Director Md. Niazur Rahman said, family planning healthcare is provided free of cost. We want to provide healthcare to tea workers. It is our responsibility and your right. The government’s job is to deliver services to the doorsteps of the people. For this, a medium and service are needed. ECDO has helped create that coordination between you and us. Today you are coming to us here, then I will go to you. We will work according to the decision made in today’s discussion.
ECDO Executive Director Laxmikant Singh said, maternal and reproductive healthcare is very much needed for the tea workers. Like these other sectors, they are deprived here too. Therefore, to raise awareness about maternal and reproductive health care for women in the tea garden and potra communities, we have trained women in their communities with the support of IPASS Bangladesh. Now, to make this training useful, we have organized this exchange meeting to coordinate with those who work on family planning.
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Sharing meeting of tea workers and family planning officials held in Sylhet
