Rohini Pawar is a feminist, self-help group leader, onion farmer, juice stall owner, ASHA (health) worker, and a Community Correspondent. This woman of boundless passion and open-hearted courage dreamed of becoming a doctor, but her dreams were curtailed when she was married at 15. “I felt like all my dreams would crash and end there,” she says. “I was scared,…

Rohini Pawar

Sonography machines at Saswad Rural Hospital, Pune have been defunct since January 2013. Pregnant women seeking pre-natal check-ups are turned away, forced to travel faraway distances and spend out of their pockets, whereas according to the Janani Suraksha Yojana, pregnant women below poverty line are entitled to free of cost healthcare. “ Every sonography costs Rs 700 and several women who cannot afford it, forego prenatal check-ups altogether. This poses a risk to the health of the mother and child,” says community correspondent Rohini Pawar

Please call the District Health Officer, Nandkumar Deshmukh on +91 20 26051418 and appeal to him to ensure that defunct sonography machines are repaired or replaced.