DW BUREAU / LUDHIANA In order to reduce the incidence of deaths during pregnancy, Deputy Commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma today asked the health and family welfare department to make Ludhiana a 'Home Deliveries' free district. Chairing a meeting to review the working of the Health department here today, the Deputy Commissioner said that all out efforts must be made to make sure that home delivery, which poses grave threat to life of mother and child, is totally stopped in the district. He said that every effort must be made to make the people aware of institutional deliveries, so that all pregnant women adopt it. Sharma said that this would is the need of the hour for saving several valuable lives. The Deputy Commissioner said that in the current fiscal 208 home deliveries have taken place in Ludhiana till July 23, which was 2.24 percent of the total 9017 deliveries in the district. He said that the incidence of home deliveries was on constant decline in the last few years as it was 15 percent in 2014-15, 13.9 percent in 2015-16, 8.5 percent in 2016-17, 6 percent in 2017-18 and 3 percent respectively in 2018-19 and 2019-2020. However, Sharma said that more efforts need to be made for completely wiping it from district and achieving the target of zero home delivery in Ludhiana. The Deputy Commissioner said that high risk areas must be identified in the district and strenuous efforts must be made to educate the people in these areas about benefits of institutional deliveries and other welfare schemes. He said that special awareness camps must be organized in these areas to ensure that people are made aware of risks involved in the case of delivery at homes. (editor@dailyworld.in)