Sheilas Wasted Jawani….Bachi Karkaria
Still lost to a game of loaded dice;whose badnami is it
Still lost to a game of loaded dice;whose badnami is it
The two torrid item numbers which have seized the imagination of a horny male populace say it all.March 8 will amplify the sound over the blossoming of Indias women and express some fury over how many more continue to be crushed under the heel of disgrace.Let us concentrate on the lost jawani,and call for an audit of the larger waste when womens lives are thrown into the dustbin of politics.
This years budget proposals make no special offers to women.But what Pranab Babu threatens to take away is more ominous than what he did not give.It is hoped that the 5% service tax on healthcare will be revoked.Women bleed most from any cut in health services,partly because of their own conditioning to cower at the back of the queue.
India is a dubious topper in many testy statistics.Just yesterday,the headlines declared that Indian men stand first in sexual violence and last in gender equality.But i would rather dwell on two older claims to global shame.Both deal with health,and if reversed,could push India up the human development index.It currently ranks 119,unacceptable in a country thats among the top 10 in GDP growth.
Last year,the UN applauded the 59% fall in our maternal mortality rate (MMR) between 1990 and 2008,but cautioned that it remains the highest in the world: 230 per 1,00,000 live births,that is 63,000 of our women still die from pregnancy related causes every year.Are you surprised Only 37% of Indian mothers-to-be see any health worker at all.
This grim and expensive toll is unacceptable because the causes of maternal mortality are known,recognisable by trained workers and treatable or avoidable : severe bleeding after childbirth,infections,hypertensive disorders and unsafe abortions.None of these need mountains of coins or small armies as Jill Sheffield,the untiring founderpresident of Women Deliver,tells her audiences of global leaders,but already have proven low-cost solutions.
Apart from the womans right to life as guaranteed in Article 21,the death of a mother severely skews the survival chances of the newborn,and to a considerable extent,that of all her children below the age of five.Imagine the social waste,and ask what is the point of grandiose plans for education,food,shelter,etc,when a significant number of kids simply wont survive to benefit from them.
If the life of the marginalised does not merit your concern,think of the economic waste.No one has bothered to come up with an Indian figure,but in 2001,it was estimated that maternal mortality led to a global productivity loss of $15 billion.So preventing the death of a new mother in a UP village makes national economic sense;more so in a time of fiscal belt tightening.
Sheffield emphatically believes that unless the MDG 5 reduction in MMR and universal access to reproductive health is achieved,all the other Millennium Development Goals will be negatively impacted.The cost of doing so is affordable;the price of not doing so will bankrupt all progress.
If the world puts in just an additional $12 billion a year (that is a total of $24 billion),it would fulfil the unmet need for family planning and provide every woman with the recommended standard of maternal and newborn care.It would reduce unintended pregnancies by more than 66%;prevent 70% of maternal deaths;avert 44% of newborn deaths;cut unsafe abortion by 73%;and slash by 66% the disability-adjusted life years lost to pregnancy-related illness and premature death.
Several yeas ago,a World Bank study found that antenatal and delivery care and family planning were among the six most cost-effective health interventions for low-income countries.So its really win-win.
Coming to shaming global record No.2,India also accounts for the highest number of the worlds cervical cancer cases,as many as one in four.It is estimated that 1,34,420 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year,and 72,825 die from the disease.It is the most frequent cancer among women in India,especially among those between 15 and 44 years of age.It also happens to be the only cancer that is preventable,with the help of the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine,and with effective screening.
Last year,the vaccine got into a strident political controversy,even though the six reported deaths in the pilot projects were found to be of totally unrelated causes.There is better news on screening: the Qiagencare HPV test,anointed by PATH,and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.It can be used in places where there is no running water or electricity,and provides results in hours,not days.This is critical for women who need to start treatment immediately,and generally for those who travel long distances to get to a clinic.It is already part of a five-year screening project covering 50,000 women under the aegis of Kolkatas Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute.
Preventing womens death and disability spreads large concentric circles of health and happiness,makes all other developmental investments pay larger dividends,and restores precious womenhours otherwise lost to the exchequer.Its a simple enough math,but yet to be grasped by those who make the political decisions and allocations.Invisible scams are deadlier.So is the invisible scream.
* Ignored and kept in the dark for far too long