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India grapples with high maternal death rate
By Sujoy Dhar
In Sindri village in a dirt-poor district of eastern India, Manohar Kumbhakar and his family are still mourning the death of his wife, who died in childbirth aged 25 while being treated by a local quack.
"I don't know what he did to my daughter-in-law. The quack kept me outside the room and later, after almost two hours, he said she had to be taken to a hospital," said Kumbhakar's mother, Helubala. "He later denied he had any role in the treatment."
Every year, about 78,000 mothers die in childbirth and from complications of pregnancy in India, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
The figures illustrate how poor women in rural India have largely been left behind by India's economic boom which has lifted millions of people out of poverty.
India's maternal mortality rate stands at 450 per 100,000 live births, against 540 in 1998-1999. The figures are way behind India's Millennium Development Goals which call for a reduction to 109 by 2015, according to UNICEF.
By comparison, fellow Asian giant China's maternal mortality rate has dropped to below 50.
UNICEF's 2009 State of the World's Children report, which was released in January, said India's fight to lower maternal mortality rates is failing due to growing social inequalities and shortages in primary healthcare facilities.
Millions of births are not attended by doctors, nurses or trained midwives, despite India's booming economy which grew at nearly 9 percent in each of the past three years ... more
Copyright 2009 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.
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This article has 2 responses.
1. Jagan Nath from India wrote:
It is only due to illiteracy, poverty, psycho-faith, unawareness in rural India. Though, government has provided enough money for health care and rural development, but fruits of development did not reach to masses. Moreover, the root case is the caste system.
2. Charanjeet Kaur from India wrote:
This Report merely skims the surface of the problem. Apart from the caste system, poverty, lack of education, lack of proper healthcare, - pregnancy in India continues to be a high risk happening, often resulting in maternal deaths, because of the prevalence of patriarchal attitudes, not only among the rural and urban poor but also in the middle and upper classes. This includes the fact that nutritional requirements of women are overlooked right from childhood. Women continue to be under nourished and this leads to low haemoglobin levels (usually not more than 9 or 10% in Indian women as against the required 12 to 14%) leading to childbirth complications and risks to the health and lives of mothers and children. Its very important to bring about an attitude change that women must have proper nutrition right from childhood to ensure that they are fit for motherhood.