VILLUPURAM: Residents of Koralur Irular settlement had lost two children in the last year, both under the age of one, and livestock due to delay in medical care. To reach the nearest hospital, they had to walk through one km of a muddy wet road before accessing a proper road.
About 45 families had been living in the Koralur settlement for over 30 years. But the road to their settlement had not been laid out, the residents alleged. The potholed mud road had prevented auto, grocery vendors, or any other mobile commercial unit to enter their settlement.
Even an ambulance had refused to go their doorsteps, they said. According to 28-years old M Puspha, “Four years ago, my one-year-old son was playing near a tractor and was accidentally hit on the head with profuse bleeding. Carrying him for one km and then taking him to the local Primary Health Centre (PHC) in Anniyur in an auto worsened his injury. By the time he was treated at the PHC and shifted to a hospital at Mundiyambakkam, he died.”
A distraught Puspha said doctors told her if the boy had been brought 30 minutes sooner, he could have been saved. “The muddy road has been haunting me since then,” she stated. Recently, a 26-year old woman delivered a stillborn after she had to walk through the bumpy road at the time of her labour.
“The auto refused to come in when my water bag was about to break. I felt movement of the baby when I left home but upon reaching the Kannaiyamman temple at the end of the mud road, I couldn’t feel any movement.” Kannama too suffered because of delay in treatment.
The PHC shifted her to Mundiyambakkam for surgery. “My baby was born still. Had the auto reached on time and a good road was there for us, my child would be two months now,” she said. Officials said as the mud path was privately-owned they had to verify the status of the patta limits to lay the road.