Empowerment of 400,000 Adolescent Girls in India

Khushi is a young married woman who comes from a large joint family of 11 individuals that live in one of the slums where IHMP provides services. She has merely 4 years of schooling. All her family members live in a small shack made of metal sheets. She and her family members make steel cooking utensils in the slum where they live.

Khushi was enrolled for Institute of Health Management Pachod (IHMP’s) adolescent care services when she was an adolescent girl.During a routine monthly house visit our community health worker (CHW) found that Khushi had missed her periods. The CHW conducted a pregnancy test immediately and found that Khushi was pregnant. Her menstrual period was on 7^th August 2019.

The CHW brought Khushi to IHMP’s nurse who enrolled her for antenatal care. During a routine examination the nurse found that Khushi was anaemic. She was given iron tablets to treat her anaemia, following which her pregnancy kept progressing smoothly.

In the last week of April 2020, during her monthly household visit our CHW found that Khushi was suffering from dry cough,fever and body ache. Khushi was in the 9^th month of pregnancy. The CHWtold Khushi to accompany her immediately to a nearby referral hospital where she tested positive for the Covid 19 infection. Khushi and her family were alarmed.

By then IHMP’s nurse had been told about Khushi’s predicament. She told the family to take Khushi to the largest tertiary hospital in the city where Khushi was admitted in the isolation ward.

She got admitted on 29^th April at the tertiary hospital where the doctors advised a caesarean operation. On 30^th April 2020 she delivered a premature baby through caesarean section. The newborn and mother were kept separately and treated for Covid 19 for a period of 14 days.

Khushi and her baby were discharged on 12^th May 2020 after their treatment was over. The mother and newborn are well and safe at home.

Khushi is one of many young married women who have benefitted from IHMP’s Covid 19 relief work. The Institute has distributed 60,000 personal protection equipment to frontline workers and provided food to hundreds of migrant workers who were bereft of jobs and livelihood.