Deliver child in govt hospitals to get awards

Guwahati, Nov 18: To increase birth in Assam, the state government has announced cash award to those who delivered a child in the government hospitals.

The government had initiated a policy to provide cash prize against every birth in the government hospitals, sources said.

The women, who give birth to a child in any of the government health centres in the state's rural areas would be awarded Rs 1400, whereas, in urban areas it would be Rs 1000, health department officials said.

The state government had set a target of 1.5 lakh institutional births in the state for the financial year 2006-07, they added.

The data available with the health department reveals that there had been about 75000 institutional births till September 30 this year, sources said.

The state had high infant and maternal mortality due to lack of awareness among people in remote areas regarding medical care facilities at the time of birth.

Meanwhile, state health department had also decided to increase the salary of nurses from Rs 4000 to Rs 7000 per month and steps were being taken to upgrade facilities in all nursing training institutions.

UNI