India, Not a Happy Place to Be a Mother

“Even though India has made efforts to improve maternal health by encouraging institutional deliveries and taking other measures, the benefits have not yet appeared to bring about a shift,” CEO of Save the Children India, Thomas Chandy said.

“This report shows that even now almost half of our births take place in the absence of skilled health personnel. This has a direct bearing on mothers’ health and, due to the strong dependence of children on mothers, also on children’s health,” he said.

As far as the educational status of women is concerned, the average years of formal schooling for women in India is just 10 years, lower than China and Sri Lanka (12 years).

India’s poor performance in providing education to women also places it among the bottom 10 in Tier II countries, Chandy said.

In Asia, Bangladesh and Nepal are rated in the report as “good” for their practices related to infant and toddler feeding; Afghanistan and India are rated as “fair”; Pakistan and Vietnam as “poor”.

Shireen Vakil Miller, Director for Policy and Advocacy at Save the Children, said though exclusive breastfeeding is a critical source of nutrition for a baby, only 46 percent of newborns in India are exclusively breastfed till six months.

(With PTI inputs)