New Delhi: A health initiative to improve maternal care for tribal women with sickle cell disease in Gujarat’s Bharuch district has won the BMJ Awards South Asia 2026. The award was announced earlier this month on 5 September.
The model, introduced by the Society for Education, Welfare and Action Rural (SEWA Rural) in Jhagadia, helped reduce maternal mortality by more than 50 per cent and stillbirths by 61 per cent among women with SCD.
“Historically, pregnant women with sickle cell disease in remote areas faced tragic outcomes due to late diagnosis and limited access to specialised care. This recognition by the British Medical Journal demonstrates that high-standard, evidence-based clinical care can be successfully adapted to rural, low-resource settings without relying on high-cost infrastructure,” said Gayatri Desai, medical director and head of the department of gynaecology at SEWA Rural, in a statement.
Since 2014, the BMJ Awards have been honouring and recognising individuals and healthcare teams across South Asia that are setting standards of excellence in patient care, clinical practice, research and healthcare leadership across the region.
A model for an entire country
Around 17 per cent of the tribal population in the southern districts of Gujarat carry the sickle cell trait. Nearly 1.5 per cent of women who deliver at a SEWA Rural facility also tested positive for the disease.
While assessing more than 10,500 tribal deliveries from 2016 to 2019, the healthcare organisation recorded that nearly one in 10 deliveries resulted in stillbirth, and around 70 per cent of the newborns were underweight. SEWA Rural realised that women need specialised care, as women with SCD require blood transfusions at substantially higher rates and face a significantly higher risk of maternal death.
SEWA Rural developed a dedicated care programme for women with SCD. They combined obstetric and haematology care with clinical protocols. More than 35,000 deliveries were screened by SEWA Rural from 2016 to 2025. Among them, 700 were high-risk SCD pregnancies. All cases were managed at their hospital in Jhagadia.
Women were treated based on their risk profile. This ranged from blood transfusion to referral support through government hospitals. In high-risk cases, the care protocol included structured second-trimester hydroxyurea therapy and prophylactic anticoagulation.
SEWA Rural was selected among 700 entries for its model’s effectiveness. The health initiative can be extended to other parts of the country. SCD is an inherited blood disorder that disproportionately affects several tribal communities in India.
SEWA Rural also spread awareness among tribal families. Addressing stigma, fears around screening and concerns about regular follow-up, the organisation included these in its counselling sessions.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)