Concern over very high maternal mortality rate in India's backward areas

New Delhi - In many backward regions, the rate is shockingly high at around 300 to 400 for every 100,000 live birth.

In many backward regions of states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand, maternal mortality rates (MMR) are more than double the national average of 140 (the MMR reflects the annual number of pregnancy-related female deaths per 100,000 live births).
India has seen a dramatic fall in MMR over the past quarter century. It plunged from 560 in 1990 to 167 in 2015 and according to the government the country is likely to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of 140.
But in many backward regions, the MMR is shockingly high at around 300 to 400 for every 100,000 live birth. In contrast, the rates in most parts of the developed world range between 10 and 20. The primary reason for the high incidence of maternal deaths is the absence of midwifery services in many villages.
The government, in a bid to boost midwifery practices in the backward states to tackle the high incidence of MMR, recently tied up with many institutions to provide training for nurses and other para-medical staff. The programme is proving to be effective, with a perceptible fall in MMR in some of the backward districts. One of the first institutions to be selected for the roll-out of the training programme is Jamia Hamdard, a deemed university, located in south Delhi.
Dr G.N. Qazi, vice-chancellor of the university, told Khaleej Times at the lush and sprawling, 120-acre campus, that nurses from Bihar, Jharkhand and other backward states have been undergoing week-long training programmes in midwifery here. "They return home and train other nurses and para-medical staff," he says. "While initially we focused on midwifery, we also now train them in pre and neo-natal care."
Week after week, they come in batches of 15 to 20 nurses and are put up at the campus. Jamia Hamdard specialises in providing education - ranging from under-graduate to post-graduate and even doctoral programmes - in healthcare-focused subjects including nursing, medicine (both western and traditional Indian, including Unani and Ayurveda) and pharmacy.
The university tied up with the University of Liverpool (which provides special equipment), the United Nations Development Programme and the Government of India in offering the midwifery programme.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month launched the government's ambitious Skill India Mission - which aims to impart skill and vocational training to more than 400 million youth over the next seven years - Jamia Hamdard has been focusing on these two aspects to ensure the youth become 'employable'.
"Millions of students who graduate out of colleges are not employable," bemoans the eminent educationist and scientist. "Vocational education is one of the best ways to ensure skills for the youth and provide them jobs."
A minority institution, which had its origins in the early 1960s, Jamia Hamdard was given the status of deemed university in 1989. Today, it has about 6,000 students (including nearly 600 foreigners) pursuing undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in 75 disciplines.
"We have decided to have five off-campus centres across India to train undergraduates," says Dr Qazi, who is also the chairman of the Indian government's Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Research Programme. The first, established in Kerala, has about a thousand students. The second one will come up in Kashmir.
nithin@khaleejtimes.com

> Dramatic fall in MMR over the last 25 years from 560 in 1990 to 167 in 2015
> In many backward regions, the MMR is shockingly high at around 300 to 400 for every 100,000 live birth
> The rates in most parts of the developed world range between 10 and 20
> Country likely to achieve the Millennium Development Goal target of 140
> The primary reason for the high incidence of maternal deaths is the absence of midwifery services in many villages

• India