Chhota Udepur: Pregnant tribal woman carried on cloth stretcher to ambulance, dies during treatment
The Gujarat High Court had taken suo motu cognisance of the incident, following which, the Gujarat government on October 7 had approved “immediate” construction of a nine-kilometre road to Turkheda village, to be built at a cost of Rs 18.5 crore.
Vadodara | Updated: September 17, 2025 12:54 PM IST
A 36-year-old pregnant tribal woman from Gujarat’s Chhota Udepur district died at the hospital allegedly due to delivery complications after being transported on a cloth stretcher over a 5-km hilly stretch to reach medical help, a situation similar to a case from almost a year ago where another pregnant tribal woman breathed her last under similar circumstances.
After Kavita Bhil’s death last year, even as the villagers had been holding to some semblance of hope in the government’s announcement of the construction of roads, however, Vansi Raju Nayak’s demise has again put a spotlight on their struggles and lack of civic amenities.
On Monday evening, Vansi, a resident of Turkheda village in Kawant Taluka of the district, had developed contractions and, as usual, the villagers fetched the cloth stretcher used to ferry pregnant women and patients across the winding, dusty trail of Turkheda to the main road, from where the ambulance can rush the patient to the hospital.
According to the villagers, after covering about 5-km distance in a cloth stretcher for about an hour, Vansi was taken in the ambulance to the Public Health Centre (PHC) in Kawant, located about five kilometers away. However, since she had developed complications, she was shifted to the Chhota Udepur Government Hospital, from where she was referred to Vadodara’s SSG Hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival. Dr Ranjan Aiyer, in-charge Medical Superintendent of SSG Hospital and Dean of Baroda Medical College told The Indian Express, “The patient was brought dead on September 16 at 2.22am, according to the hospital records. A referring note of the Chhota Udepur civil hospital was sent with the patient. The Raopura police station oversaw the post-mortem examination before the body was handed over to her husband, Raju Nayak at 1 pm on Tuesday.”
While the Nayak family remained occupied with formalities to bring back Vansi’s body as well as the unborn fetus to Turkheda for the final rites on Tuesday, their neighbours said that despite the announcement that the roads would be constructed after Kavita Bhil’s death in October last year, the administration is yet to step foot in the area.
Turkheda village resident Nagin Rathwa said, “We believe that Vansiben had sudden but regular contractions last evening when the villagers decided to ferry her to the ambulance, about five kilometers from Khaidi Faliya (sub-area in the village), where the family lives. Yet, it takes about an hour given that there is also overgrowth on the path due to the monsoon…”
“When she was taken to the PHC in Kawant, due to unavailability of facilities, she was referred to two other district centers, including the main government hospital in Chhota Udepur. By then, her case had become complicated and the family was asked to shift her to SSG hospital in Vadodara. They kept referring her from one hospital to another as the district is ill-equipped to deal with pregnancy-related complications. She never made it…” Rathwa said.
Vansi’s husband, Raju Nayak, is devastated by the loss as the couple has four daughters aged 16, 13, nine and six and this was Vansi’s fifth pregnancy, Rathwa added.
“The entire family is on their way back from Vadodara after completing the formalities… The death of Kavita Bhil last year and the subsequent announcement of the roads by the government had given us hope that we will not face such a situation again but the roads are nowhere in sight and pregnant women and critically ill patients continue to be ferried on cloth stretchers…” Rathwa added further.
Meanwhile, Chhota Udepur District Collector Gargi Jain told The Indian Express that unlike the incident of Kavita Bhil when she had breathed her last before reaching the ambulance, Vansi Nayak had “arrived in time” at the hospital. Jain said, “The woman had been brought to the hospital in time and underwent treatment. She was referred to Vadodara and passed away during the treatment… The tenders have been issued for roads that have been planned for the area and the work will commence in October, after the end of the monsoon.”
On October 3, 2024, The Indian Express had reported the case of Kavita Bhil from Baskiya Faliya in Turkheda village, who breathed her last after going into labour before she could make it to the ambulance on the main road. She had delivered a baby girl, who survived and will turn one year old.
The Gujarat High Court had taken suo motu cognisance of the incident, following which, the Gujarat government on October 7 had approved “immediate” construction of a nine-kilometre road to Turkheda village, to be built at a cost of Rs 18.5 crore.
In a letter to the Panchayat Superintendent Engineer, Vadodara, the Roads and Building Department had approved construction of “tar roads” to replace the existing hilly pathway in the area.
The letter stated that work will be undertaken to build tar roads along with protection walls in two stretches — a patch of 2.2 kilometres to the main point of Handlabari Faliya in Turkheda village, and thereafter a stretch of 5.8 km from Handlabari main road to the several faliyas in the village.The letter had stated that the work was to “commence immediately” and “completed within the budget set for the same”.
