The present chapter reports the barriers associated with maternal healthcare services among the interstate migrants living in the slums of Bangalore city of Karnataka, India. The study used the mixed-method approach. Quantitative data were collected by interviewing 100 mothers having a <2-year-old child or pregnant during data collection. Qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews with mothers and healthcare providers, such as doctors, and peripheral health workers, such as ASHA. The study found more vulnerable to accessing maternal healthcare services due to socio-cultural barriers like distance to the government healthcare centre, financial constraints, lack of awareness about the availability of government healthcare services, lower educational literacy, and language barrier to communicating with the healthcare providers. Some institutional barriers are also noticed, including the unavailability of free-of-cost medicines, lack of infrastructure like enough space, provision of drinking water, and toilet facilities and less access to reproductive health information due to their migratory status. Another important drawback was unreachable by the health workers working in their area due to their remote location and unrecognized slum identity. Hence, the study warrants developing a system to strengthen maternal healthcare services in this marginalized slum population by incorporating migrant-sensitive policies and improving government healthcare services to improve the utilization level.

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Barriers Associated with Maternal Healthcare Among the Migrant Slum Dwellers

  • Suchismita Mishra,
  • Bontha V. Babu,
  • T. Rajendra Prasad

摘要

The present chapter reports the barriers associated with maternal healthcare services among the interstate migrants living in the slums of Bangalore city of Karnataka, India. The study used the mixed-method approach. Quantitative data were collected by interviewing 100 mothers having a <2-year-old child or pregnant during data collection. Qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews with mothers and healthcare providers, such as doctors, and peripheral health workers, such as ASHA. The study found more vulnerable to accessing maternal healthcare services due to socio-cultural barriers like distance to the government healthcare centre, financial constraints, lack of awareness about the availability of government healthcare services, lower educational literacy, and language barrier to communicating with the healthcare providers. Some institutional barriers are also noticed, including the unavailability of free-of-cost medicines, lack of infrastructure like enough space, provision of drinking water, and toilet facilities and less access to reproductive health information due to their migratory status. Another important drawback was unreachable by the health workers working in their area due to their remote location and unrecognized slum identity. Hence, the study warrants developing a system to strengthen maternal healthcare services in this marginalized slum population by incorporating migrant-sensitive policies and improving government healthcare services to improve the utilization level.