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Showing posts from 2015

Is that spring in the air?

Ashok Alexander There is a bounce, energy, even a jauntiness, these days in urban India. An economy in rebound, investor confidence, new political scenarios, global plaudits. Spring it seems, is in the air. Sadly, for millions of India’s poorest mothers and their children, seasons barely change. Between conception and age five, anaemia prevails in over 50 percent of mothers. Some 50,000 women die in childbirth. About 1.3 million children die before they are five, more than half of them in their first thirty days. Of kids who survive, over forty percent are malnourished. These are amongst the worst health outcomes in the world. The situation prevails, even with several fundamentals in place. The basic solutions to most maternal and child health (MCH) problems are known. There is a structure for public health delivery down to the villages, and well-conceived programs exist, such as the National Health Mission. The Integrated Child Development Services program focuses on the