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.
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. Around two-thirds of Indian women still deliver babies at home. Women from the lower castes suffer the most as they are often denied access to basic healthcare.
Maternal deaths are avoidable with the help of skilled health personnel, adequate nutrition, better medical facilities and family planning, medical groups say. But poor women, especially in rural India where fertility rates are higher and teenage marriages are common, face an uphill battle to overcome lack of access to medical care.
Health centre staff in many areas demanding money from poor women for delivery. Many were turned away from the centres and were forced to give birth on the road or the hospital compound.
Indian women get married at a median age of just 17 years. Among women aged 15-19, 16 percent have already begun childbearing. The younger a girl is when she becomes pregnant, the greater the health risk for herself and baby.
Women's food intake must improve if the region's high maternal mortality rate is to drop. More than half of Indian women have anaemia, another potential killer during childbirth, compared to 24 percent of men.
"Inside the homes, women are the last to get food. They are much more vulnerable and that is why they are dying."
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