CUTTACK: In a significant order, the Orissa High Court on Thursday directed Odisha government to pay Rs 10 lakh compensation in the Martha Sabar case and directed immediate constitution of an advisory body of healthcare experts to draw up a comprehensive action plan comprising preventive and remedial action points in the short and medium term to check maternal deaths in the state.
A division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice MS Raman observed that there has been an acute failure of the teams of doctors at each level of the healthcare system in Odisha to provide timely and adequate care and treatment to the deceased in the present case.
“It shocks the judicial conscience that a poor tribal woman had been carrying a dead foetus for a week prior to her death with not one person in the healthcare system being able to provide her the needed care and treatment which resulted in her inevitable death. This court, therefore, has no hesitation in directing that for the avoidable death of the deceased, the government of Odisha should pay the family members the sum of Rs 10 lakh within a period of six weeks from today.”
The compensation amount will be kept in fixed deposits (FDs) as directed hereafter. FDs for Rs 3,50,000 each will be made in favour of the mother-in-law and the father-in-law of the deceased Martha Sabar and an FD for Rs 3,00,000 in favour of her husband Ganpati Sabar.Martha was admitted to Garabangha primary health centre and later shifted to the district headquarters hospital (DHH) at Parlakhemundi where she breathed her last on March 25, 2015.
While disposing of Martha’s father-in-law Sambara Sabar’s petition the bench further observed, “This court is constrained to note that Martha Sabar’s death is not an isolated instance as far as Odisha is concerned. Number of women in tribal belts, in the rural and semi-urban areas, have lost lives during pregnancy and as a result of unsafe deliveries is a matter for deep concern.”
The bench said, the increase in maternal deaths in Odisha points to a systemic failure of the health care system which appears to have failed the poorest and the weakest at a time when they need it the most. “If unfortunate maternal deaths like Martha Sabar’s must be avoided, then the state must move from post-event reaction mode to preventive mode. Therefore, the need for a comprehensive action plan”.
The court endorsed the suggestions made by the Odisha State Commission for Women (OSCW) for strengthening the system for better delivery of the large number of welfare-oriented health related schemes for women and children in general and pregnant women in particular.