On September 8, a woman gave birth to a baby on a make-shift stretcher while on her way to the state dispensary in Chirang’s Udalguri village of Assam, news agency ANI reported.

The stretcher was made out of cloth and plastic sheets. Two people had to carry the stretcher for five kilometres to reach the dispensary, the report added.

According to the woman’s family, they received no response from the toll-free ambulance service and hence had to carry the pregnant woman on the stretcher. A member of the family complained about no road connectivity to their village, and how carrying patients on make-shift stretchers is a common practice.