CLAT English Language: Population Control & Health Care

Ignorance and superstition are major obstacles to overcome in rural villages, where dangerous home deliveries are commonplace. But Dr. Gaikwad estimates that 90 percent of expectant mothers in Dharavi are booked for hospital stays well in advance, a testament to the goodwill and strong communication lines that have been established here between medical staff and the local community. The process of registering patients for delivery begins as soon as one of the door-to-door volunteers learns of a new pregnancy. A file is then prepared for the mother-to-be, charting her progress leading up to and after the moment of childbirth. Along the way, crucial medicines and vitamins are freely distributed to balance out deficiencies in the diets of women who oftentimes cannot afford adequate nutrition in their daily meals.

While another post-graduate will eventually replace Dr. Gaikwad, Ms. Nadumani and her colleagues have been serving their community for two decades now.

"I remember when I first started these shifts, 20 years ago,"Ms. Nadumani said. "I had to warn so many more women about the dangers of passing HIV/AIDS to their babies back then."

She is satisfied that her efforts in the community are paying off not because of what shows up in statistics, but because of the reduction in HIV-positive patients she now witnesses firsthand.

"People listen to me because I live here, "MS. Nadumani explained. "I'm part of the neighborhood."

Today, however, Ms. Nadumani's most important duty is not educating people about a disease like HIV/AIDS, or even advising pregnant women, but helping to control the population itself. After women give birth to a second child, Ms. Nadumani and the other volunteers urge them to try using condoms in the hopes of reducing the birth rate. There are certain stigmas against using condoms, however, and these women can instead opt for temporary or permanent sterilization. The government then compensates those who apply for such measures with checks of 500-1000 rupees . The community here can ill afford any increases to its 13.89% birth rate.

While Chhota Sion has made impressive progress in improving the safety of childbirth in Dharavi, workers fear that they are working against the clock: the birth rate of 13.89%, for example, indicates the percentage rise of new people born into the slum each year, and the death rate, 5.24%, indicates the numbers of human beings taken away from it. In concert, those numbers paint a picture of a population that increased roughly 8.5% percent over the course of the last calendar year, not to mention migration to the area. Should that trend continue apace, Sion could eventually find itself stretched as thin as those peripheral hospitals mentioned by Dr. Nayak, erasing what has become a bright spot in the war against maternal and infant mortality. It is an outcome that everyone who works here is eager to avoid.

According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE:

Answer: D) Door-to-door volunteers are important to obtain information about new pregnancies.

Option A is ruled out because the passage mentions that Ms. Nadumani and other volunteers urge women to try using condoms after the second child is born

Option B is ruled out because the passage mentions that ‘crucial medicines and vitamins are freely distributed to balance out deficiencies in the diets of women who oftentimes cannot afford adequate nutrition in their daily meals’

Option C is ruled out because the final paragraph mentions that if the present trend continues (increase in population), then Sion could find itself stretched thin (meaning it is not well staffed to handle an increase in population.

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