Mother’s survival instinct: Pregnant tribal woman carried 8 km in jholi in Madhya Pradesh

A woman in labour was carried on a cloth sling for 8km on Thursday evening, on jungle trails and muddy paths in MP’s Barwani -- every moment of it in utter agony --because there is no road connecting her forest hamlet with a village that at least has a dirt track. That wasn’t the end of her ordeal, though. The nearest hospital was still 20km away, but she thankfully got an ambulance. Tribal grit and a mother’s survival instinct helped her endure the agony, and she gave birth to a baby girl early Friday morning. Dr Arvind Kirade, block medical officer of Pansemal, said the 20-year old mother, Sunita, and her child are doing fine. Sunita’s village, Rajpura, is a settlement of about 200, close to the Maharashtra border. Local ASHA workers are life-savers here, and Sunita’s health was being monitored by Sangeeta Fatia Rawat all along.