LONDON, 22 August: Britain Tuesday pledged to donate about a quarter of a billion pounds to a project geared towards saving the lives of children and mothers in India.
The Reproductive and Child Health Programme, a nationwide Indian government scheme, will use the money to pay for better maternity facilities, essential drugs, more midwives (jordemødre), and other equipment and will target the poorest Indians.
Britain will donate 252 million pounds (475 mio. dollars, 370 mio. euros) over five years to the programme, which aims to reduce Indias maternal mortality rate (mødredødelighed) from 407 per 100.000 live births in 1998 to 100 per 100.000 in 2015.
The programme also aims to cut death rates among children younger than five from 70 per 1.000 live births to 30 over the same period.
– The birth of a child ought to be a joyful experience, but for more than 100.000 women in India, giving birth means death for them and possibly their baby as well, said Britains International Development Secretary (udviklingsminister) Hilary Benn.
– The tragedy is that these deaths could so easily be prevented if mothers going into labour (fødende kvinder) had the support of a skilled midwife, and children were properly immunised against killers such as measles and tetanus (stivkrampe), said he.
Other donors to the programme, which has a total cost of 5,3 billion pounds, include the World Bank, European Commission and the UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF).
Currently, one-fifth of all maternal deaths during childbirth in the world occur in India, while a quarter of all deaths of children under five take place on the sub-continent.
Kilde: The Push Journal
