Tamil Nadu hospitals to have libraries

In a unique initiative, libraries will be set up in maternity wards of all district headquartered government women and children’s hospitals in Tamil Nadu.

The first of these libraries was inaugurated by the state Health Minister C. Vijaya Baskar at the Government Kasturba Gandhi Hospital for Women and Children in Chennai. These libraries will come up under the corporate social responsibility activities undertaken by the Ramco Cements, a cement manufacturing company and The Hindu Group, which brings out the Hindu newspaper, with the support of the Tamil Nadu Health and Family Welfare Department.

The minister said that reading books would help in the emotional the well-being of antenatal women, who could be will be under stress during their pregnancy. He said that the government would provide full support to the setting up of similar libraries in all districts. He said that Tamil Nadu was on par with developed countries when it came to maternal and child health. The state’s public health is known for its success in providing quality health services at an affordable cost, especially to the rural people.

He said that 99.9% of the deliveries in the state were institutional deliveries, of which 65 to 70% took place in government hospitals.