India and Maternal Mortality Numbers

Hi everyone. For this week’s post I’d like to contribute a few different views on India’s activities directed at meeting the UN Millennium Development Goal of reducing maternal mortality.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/india-doing-well-in-reducing-maternal-mortality-unicef-53618

The first report details the recent numbers released by Unicef that shows a 59% drop in maternal mortality rates since 2000 in India. Unicef congratulates India on these accomplishments.

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/09/20/india-maternal-health-gains-disputed

The next article is from Human Rights Watch which reports critics claim that the Indian government is manipulating numbers and reporting filtered information. For instance, critics claim the government only evaluates women who give birth in a health facility and does not measure health and mortality after women leave the facilities and other methods to decrease maternal mortality numbers reported.

Thanks!

Jen Rice

Development, modernisation of rural India a must: President

The President of India today reiterated a previous desire to invest more in rural India which is home to 2/3 of Indians but only 1/3 of India's GDP. She's pushing for private investment within the rural agricultural economy. With the size and amount of labor available, it's crucial that rural areas maximize their potential in the agricultural sector. This will help deter movement toward the city and slum life there. If this were to happen (increased investment) it could lead to improved education and a continued decay of the caste system which is often propped up (more so in the north) by politically motivated groups.

http://sify.com/finance/development-modernisation-of-rural-india-a-must-president-news-default-kjwvOfdeagf.html

Maharashtra's age-of-marriage competition

http://infochangeindia.org/200810107427/Women/Features/Maharashtra-s-age-of-marriage-competition.html

Many of us know many of the women in India participate (willing or otherwise) in arranged marriages, but this article goes further into the age of these young women and some of their child-bearing complications. According to this article, about 49% of rural women and 29% of urban women are married before the age of 18. Of these women, ages ranging from 15-19, 58% of them are bearing children. Many of these young women have children that suffer from low birth weight and a significant number of these children die at a very young age. The Maharashtra state government is working to encourage young married women to wait a few years to have children. Some work is being done to raise the marital age of women, but cultural changes are difficult to shift.

This is the same state that MPS 542 and 611 students will be visiting. We may see a significant number of younger married mothers in our host villages. How might the presence of young, married mothers impact some of the WOTR research initiatives? I will be working on a project studying livelihood opportunities brought about by the watershed projects. I may need to consider the lack of opportunities young, married mothers will have due to their family obligations. Additionally, how might these new livelihood opportunities be used as a portal to help the Maharashtra state government's efforts and shift this social situation? Gaining support among the male population also seems a bit difficult. I am interested to learn more of how Maharashtra men view this particular situation.

by Shawn Janzen

Violence against Lower Caste Women in India

http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports/re32c.pdf
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,HRW,,IND,4562d8cf2,3ae6a83f0,0.html

Lower caste women experience multiple oppressions in India, particularly relating to violence against them. They experience this violence from men of their own castes as well as men and women from higher castes, but have little ability to gain protection from either the state or other sections of Indian society. Over the years, lower caste women, particularly Dalit women, have been attacked and abused with impunity. Over 160 million people comprise the Dalit community in India and at least half are women.

According to a UNHCR report, "Dalits are discriminated against, denied access to land, water and other resources, forced to work in degrading conditions, and routinely abused, even killed, at the hands of the police and of higher-caste groups that enjoy the state's protection." In addition to this, Dalit women are physically and sexually abused at higher rates than any other group of women in India.

Caste issues are intrinsically tied to the analysis of unequal gender relations in India, as the women's movement has been dominated by upper caste, middle class women, and prioritized their interests. However, recently, lower caste and tribal women have begun to assert their own voice within the women's movement, urging the establishment of a federation of Dalit women, that is separate from both the existing Dalit political groups and the women's movement in its current form. It is imperative that 63 years after independence that the Indian government, and Indian society as a whole deal with these multiple axes of discrimination against lower caste women through legislation and changes in social practices.

India's Democracy Struggles with Education & Sanitation

http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/indias-democracy-struggles-with-education-and-sanitation/19644433


Despite the progress India has made regarding sanitation, health care and education, there are still many Indians who suffer daily without basic human essentials. This is mainly due to India’s large population, consisting of 1.2 billion people. Although India’s poverty level has been reduced, maternal health and sanitation remain poor, with no concrete plan of attacking these issues.

Shocking statistics show that India has the highest number of people without proper toilets as well as the highest number of pregnant women dying during childbirth. As for education, only 12.4% of 220 million school-going children advance on to higher education.

The government intends to increase this rate to 20.0% by 2020 by investing $60 billion for education in the next three years. Yet, in order to this to be plausible, this would require tripling the share of India’s GDP devoted to education.

Although India’s economy is growing, their government needs to put more emphasis on the important social issues at hand. In fact, by taking care of their country’s social needs, it may even result in economic growth. Major companies, who express interest in investing in the country, end up backing away once they realize India’s inability to provide basic sanitation needs and education to its people.

It seems to me that India’s government is putting too much focus on their economic growth, and is dismissing the social needs of its country. Instead, they need to utilize their economic growth for good and form concrete, plausible plans to reduce these health, sanitation and educational issues at bay.

Five more killed in Kashmir violence

This article tells the story of ongoing war from the 19th century between India and Pakistan. The region of Kashmir is divided in three countries, India with one half, Pakistan with one third and China with a small portion of the northeastern. In the mid 19th century Pakistan gave to China the small portion of Aksai Chin and the Trans-Karakoram Tract. The dispute of the territories has continued over time between India and Pakistan. This has brought a lot of tension in the region. In 1989 Kashmiri separatists took up arms but the violence had stop in the recent years until last summer.

The violence has increased since last June claiming more than 100 lives. The anti-India demonstrations has affect the peace in the region. The government has imposed strict curfews and has implemented extra forces to keep the calm in the streets and silence the people from demonstrating for independence from India. This political move from the government of India has been questioned for the increased violence and the violation of human rights. In Srinagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir, the crowds come to the funeral of a youth killed. They chanted “freedom”.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/09/18/india.kashmir.violence/index.html?iref=allsearch

Waste Management in India (Social issue)

India is a developing country. Many cities in India are competing with the cities in the developed countries. The global exchange has exposed India to products from all around the world and the imports have increased tremendously. This has also lead to an increase of hazardous waste as well. As the article, “Waste Management in India,” published in the newspaper, “Hindustan Times,” highlights the waste import in India has increased by 48% in the past three years. However India’s ability to handle this waste has not increased in the same proportion. This has resulted in an increase in air and water pollution. The recycling plants do not have sufficient resources and equipments to make sure that the hazardous waste is recycled or disposed off appropriately.

This is a big social problem as it is affecting the health and safety of the citizens of India. The government needs to take greater charge and control of waste management to make sure that the citizens can live a healthy and happy life.

Here is another article with some more information on how waste management is a serious social, health and environmental issue:

http://www.indiatogether.org/2010/jun/ksh-rags.htm