Ahmedabad: The final blueprint of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar’s 2036 Summer Olympics plans estimates the total costs to be between Rs 34,700 crore and Rs 64,000 crore, according to a recent report.A stroll around Bopal Ambli Road in Ahmedabad reveals infrastructure that would put Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex to shame. There is even a ‘Billionaire Street’ lined with lavish villas and aspirational five-bedroom apartments – one reportedly designed by Gauri Khan. Yet, less than three hours away, in Nasvadi taluka of Chhota Udepur district, the reality is starkly different.When pregnant women in several villages of this taluka go into labour, their families are often forced to physically lift them onto stretchers and carry them for two to four kilometres to meet an ambulance where the road finally begins. This is a regular occurrence due to the lack of concrete roads; ambulances cannot reach interior villages. In the past few months alone, two women have died before reaching the hospital, this reporter has learnt.In March, a pregnant Laxmi Ben (name changed) of Dubba village complained of labour pain. Her family called up the government ambulance. An ASHA worker came promptly, not with an ambulance but a stretcher. The family put her on the stretcher and carried her for two kilometres to where there was a road. The ambulance was waiting there. Laxmi managed to deliver her child eventually.Jivli Bhil, a Kunda village resident who was pregnant and in labour, had to be placed on a makeshift stretcher stitched together from cloth. Her relatives and neighbours carried her on their shoulders for nearly a kilometre through Naswadi taluka to reach the ambulance. Only then could she be taken to a hospital. She too made it in time, and her child was delivered safely. But that is not the full story.Kunda village sits in terrain where motorable roads simply don’t exist. Vehicles can’t get in. When a medical emergency strikes, especially at night and in labour, the only option is human arms. The ambulance waits where the roads begin. Over the past year, women in labour have been carried on cloth stretchers through villages such as Manukla, Khenda, Dukta, Jarkhali, Bhundmaria, Dubba, and Padwani. The distances ranged from two to five kilometres. In several of these cases, babies were born before reaching any medical facility.Villagers carry a pregnant woman in Gujarat’s Chhota Udepur district. Photo: Vibes of India.In the Padvani-Kawant belt alone, at least three such incidents were recorded over the past six months. In Turkheda, the story turned darker. At least two women died within a year under nearly identical circumstances.Many of these villages sit beyond the reach of regular media coverage. Only the most extreme cases travel far enough to be documented.This reporter has learnt that the Bharatiya Janata Party government is keen on setting up major projects in this mineral-rich area, but the local population is unwilling to move out of their homes. Six months ago, over 500 people from tribal communities of the Nakhal village in Kwant taluka of Chhota Udepur district submitted a petition to the District Collector, opposing a survey by the Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC). The corporation, which previously operated a fluorspar project at Kadipani, resumed activity after discovering rare earth minerals in several villages. The ongoing survey has covered around 28 villages, prompting concerns among the tribal community. The petition emphasised that the project falls within a Fifth Schedule area, so no work can be carried out without the approval of the Gram Sabha.Last September, at Turkheda, in Kvant taluka, Vansiben Rajubhai Nayaka was pregnant with her fifth child when labour began. There was no road for the ambulance to use. Villagers made a cloth sling and carried her three kilometres on foot from Khedi Faliya hamlet before she could be loaded into a vehicle at the ambulance pick-up point. She was then transferred not once but twice — from Kavant’s Community Health Centre to Chhota Udepur, and from there to the SSG Hospital in Vadodara. She died before she could deliver. Her newborn survived.In 2024, a bench of the Gujarat high court took suo motu cognisance of a news report about a pregnant woman who, while being carried on a cloth stretcher as there was no road, died on the way to the ambulance pickup point at a village in Chhota Udepur.“Our heads hang in shame that we had to read the press clipping on the birth date of Mahatma Gandhi as well as Lal Bahadur Shastri,” the high court had said, since the woman had died on October 2.The bench of Justice Biren Vaishnav and Justice Nisha Thakore expressed anguish at the state of affairs and took note of the locals’ request for a motorable road up to their village. The court sought an explanation from the Chief Secretary. According to Arjun Rathwa, a Chhota Udepur-based social activist and a Congress party worker, the state government was compelled to earmark a special budget for road construction – about Rs 28 crores for the entire district. “As before, the local administration and the forest department are squabbling, and no headway has been made,” Rathwa said.Rathwa said something more insidiuous may be at play. “The BJP wants to set up a big hydropower project in this area and wants the tribals to move out. The tribals have protested against the project in the past.”Villagers carry a pregnant woman in Gujarat’s Chhota Udepur district. Photo: Vibes of India.According to Amit Patel, an independent journalist based in Chhota Udepur, the administration’s apathy is striking. He says such incidents have become routine in the district. Patel adds that the local MLA, Abhesinh Motibhai Tadvi, has been approached at least a dozen times about the issue. Roads are sanctioned before elections, but the work never begins, he claims. Patel also alleges that the BJP MLA recently humiliated several tribals who approached him by saying it was not his party’s fault that the tribals lived in such “difficult circumstances.” The area is hilly, with small mounds; tribals live scattered across these, and in some cases, a mound houses only one or two huts.“I have heard of roads in various difficult terrains. Here, motorcycles can travel. If there were better roads, ambulances could reach locals at their doorstep,” he said. The BJP MLA, Abhesinh Tadvi, could not be reached for comment.Months earlier, in July, a similar scene played out in Bhundmaria village. The 108 ambulance stopped three kilometres short – that was where the paved road ended. Family members reportedly carried the woman through mud, water and ravines to reach it. Someone recorded the journey. The video spread fast. People were shocked. Those who live there were not.In March this year, a pregnant woman in Khokhra village in Naswadi went into labour. The 108 ambulance couldn’t reach her as she lived in the same taluka where Jivli Bhil was carried just weeks later.The pattern is not confined to Gujarat.Two years ago, a study in the Economic and Political Weekly examined healthcare access in Gujarat’s tribal regions using geospatial analysis. The finding was stark: public health facilities in Gujarat show significant distribution biases against tribal regions and border districts. The location and spread of health centres are suboptimal in most tribal-populated districts, resulting in inadequate obstetric care.Gujarat’s tribal population is not small. It constitutes 14.8% of the state’s total population – roughly 89 lakh people spread across 14 districts.The missing road is only at the start. What remains unaddressed are years of inadequate tribal development, an emergency response system, and health infrastructure yet to be upgraded.While stadiums and mind-boggling infrastructure rise in Gujarat, the state has the largest number of malnourished children in the country, the highest percentage of underweight children among all states and its stunting rate stands at 39% and wasting at 25.1% – among the worst for major states in India.The NFHS-5 data show that 80% of children under five years of age in Gujarat suffer from anaemia, worse than the already shocking Indian average of 67%. The survey revealed that children often inherit this condition from their mothers. Nearly 63% of pregnant women surveyed had anaemia. 65% of all women in the reproductive age group (15–49 years) were anaemic in Gujarat, a much higher share than the Indian average of 57%.Gujarat’s four major districts with urban populations — Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, and Rajkot — experienced sharper increases in stunting, wasting, severe malnutrition, and underweight cases than even some of the tribal districts.Among tribal women — who make up 14.8% of Gujarat’s population — the numbers are catastrophic. A study of 2,805 pregnant women across ten districts of Gujarat found an overall anaemia prevalence of 64.2%.Deepal Trivedi is the co-founder of www.vibesofindia.com. She can be reached at deepal@vibesofindia.com. A version of this piece has appeared on Vibes of India.