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STORY: INDIA / MATERNAL MORTALITY
TRT: 3:43
SOURCE: OHCHR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: HINDI / ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 30 SEPTEMBER 2010, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE
FILE – UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA
1. Wide shot, Dyaram in his village
2. SOUNDBITE (Hindi) Dyaram, Husband of deceased woman:
“I am sure, if we had got transportation on time, today my wife and child would be alive. All vehicles in the village were engaged. The nearest hospital is Mirjapur, which is 50km away.”
3. Med shot, Dyaram working in farm
4. Various shots, Dyaram sitting with family members
5. SOUNDBITE (Hindi) Dyaram, Husband of deceased woman:
“My wife was pregnant, was in labour pain, but we could not find any vehicle to go to the hospital. When we reached the hospital it was too late and my wife had passed away.”
5. Med shot, Dyaram with daughter
6. Wide shot, village
7. Various shots, woman in delivery room
8. Various shots, street scenes
SEPTEMBER 2010, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
7. Various shots, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay working
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human
Right:
“Discrimination against women causes deaths in pregnancy and childbirth which can be prevented. Women should have a say in the decisions that affect their sexual and reproductive health.”
9. Cutaway, Navi Pillay in office
10. Wide shot, UN Human Rights Council in session
FILE – UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA
11. Med shot, patients walking in a hospital corridor
12. Med shot, mother to be on a handcart
DATE AND LOCATION UNKNOWN
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Michael Mbivzo, Director for Reproductive Health and Research, World Health Organization:
“Where health education has been received or where girls have received adequate education they are empowered to make choices and decisions that affect their health including that which protects them from maternal mortality.”
FILE – UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA
14. Wide shot, two women walking
15. Various shots, health examination on expectant woman
16. Wide shot women singing
17. Various shots, women walking out
SEPTEMBER 2010, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Let women and girls have access to the right information, enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and the highest attainable standards of health. Let them participate in decision-making processes that affect their pregnancy and delivery. If we do that, the lives of many thousands of women and girls will be saved each year.”
FILE – UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA
19. Various shots, woman grinding food with baby in arms
Discrimination against women leads to preventable deaths and injuries during pregnancy and childbirth. Each year, hundreds of thousands of women and girls die and millions more become disabled as a result of complications during pregnancy and childbirth.
A study by the United Nations Human Rights office (OHCHR) finds a clear relationship between maternal mortality and morbidity, and violations of human rights.
SOUNDBITE (Hindi) Dyaram, Husband of deceased woman:
“I am sure, if we had got transportation on time, today my wife and child would be alive. All vehicles in the village were engaged. The nearest hospital is Mirjapur, which is 50km away.”
Dyaram’s wife Pushpa Vill died after developing complications in labour. Pushpa was forced to walk 50 kilometers from her remote village in India’s northern province of Uttar Pradesh to the nearest hospital because of a lack of transport. Pushpa and her baby died before her family could get help.
SOUNDBITE (Hindi) Dyaram, Husband of deceased woman:
“My wife was pregnant, was in labour pain, but we could not find any vehicle to go to the hospital. When we reached the hospital it was too late and my wife had passed away.”
A grieving Dyaram returned home to take care of their only surviving child now motherless. An estimated 25,000 women die during pregnancy and childbirth in the province of Uttar Pradesh every year. Just like Pushpa, many women succumb during childbirth because of poverty, lack of access to emergency maternal health care, and information.
Globally, the figure is estimated at more than 500,000. The UN Millennium Development Goals aims to reduce maternal mortality by three quarters, by 2015. UN Human Rights chief Navi Pillay says it is unacceptable that women continue to die giving birth. She says maternal mortality is a human rights issue.
SOUNDBITE (English) Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human
Right:
“Discrimination against women causes deaths in pregnancy and childbirth which can be prevented. Women should have a say in the decisions that affect their sexual and reproductive health.”
The new study by the UN Human Rights office, produced at the request of the UN Human Rights Council, found that the risks associated with pregnancy and child birth are not unavoidable natural disadvantages, but are the result of the unjust, unequal treatment of women and cause more deaths and disabilities among women, than any other factors among men of fertile age.
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Michael Mbivzo, Director for Reproductive Health and Research, World Health Organization:
“Where health education has been received or where girls have received adequate education they are empowered to make choices and decisions that affect their health including that which protects them from maternal mortality.”
Statistics show the greatest majority of maternal deaths occur in Africa and Asia because of a general lack of infrastructure with very few skilled health workers, and health clinics, few public transport services and poor or non-existent roads.
But the problem is not unique to the developing world. Maternal mortality is a crisis without borders.
Not far from Dyaram’s village, women have got together to look after mothers to be- with the sole objective of saving lives.
Behind the maternal mortality statistics are millions of personal tragedies, like Dyaram’s wife. Improvements in women’s rights and maternal health will have an economic and social impact on families reaching far beyond the lives of women under threat.
SOUNDBITE (English) Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Let women and girls have access to the right information, enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and the highest attainable standards of health. Let them participate in decision-making processes that affect their pregnancy and delivery. If we do that, the lives of many thousands of women and girls will be saved each year.”
Every mother counts whether numbers are decreasing or not, experts say when death is preventable, one death is one too many.
