It has been a long, long haul for Ranjana, and she is quieted by exhaustion and apprehension in equal parts. This is the second hospital she has been admitted to that day and both have treated her with superb disdain, making her wait for hours together, refusing to give her treatment without money, slapping her when she complained of pain and calling her all sorts of derogatory names. Frustrated and scared for the mother and child, the family took her to a private nursing home. Harihar brings a chilling account of what happens to Indian mothers in the least developed areas of the country inspite of having maternal health programs like Janani Surksha Yojana that assures free delivery to all expectant mothers.
India was tasked to meet the United Nations Millenium Development Goal to reduce the maternal mortality rate to 109 deaths per 100,000 deaths by 2015. The year the goal was laid down, the rate was five time higher at 540, among the poorest in the world outside of Africa, higher than that of neighbours Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and several times that of Sri Lanka. The answer, the government decided, lay in bringing women to deliver in hospitals, and it introduced the Janani Suraksha Yojana in 2005.
Harihar wishes that the Janani Suraksha Yojana is fairly implemented in his area for all mothers. Join his effort, call the number at the end of the video to call the concerned government officials
This video was made by a Video Volunteers Community Correspondent Harihar Nagbanshi.
Community Correspondents come from marginalized communities in India and produce videos on unreported stories.
These stories are ’news by those who live it.’ They give the hyperlocal context to global human rights and development challenges. See more such videos at www.videovolunteers.org. Take action for a more just global media by sharing their videos and joining in their call for change.
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Avijit Adhikary is a journalist with nearly 8000 days of field experience till date. In the past two decades, he has witnessed the ebb and flow of the media industry in India, with ripples felt in his region too. This includes the rise of digital media, the decline of print...
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