Although the government has introduced healthcare centres to provide better healthcare services to the citizens, more or less all the 343 healthcare institutions in the six states lack hygiene, toilets, clean water and waste disposal according to survey conducted by WaterAid India. Surveys also point out that out of 10 babies 8 are now delivered in hospitals.
Despite introducing such measures, and despite the increasing number of babies being born in hospitals which increased from 41% in 2005-06 to 79% in 2011-12, India still remains on the top of the list of emerging nations with high rate of maternal and infant mortality.
Water and sanitation hygiene (WASH) facilities–as they are collectively called–were often absent; if pipes were laid, water was often unavailable. There was hardly any research data or national planning for such facilities in PHCs, CHCs, area and district hospitals surveyed by WaterAid over 2014 and 2016 in 12 districts of Uttar Pradesh (UP), Madhya Pradesh (MP), Andhra Pradesh (AP), Telangana, Odisha and Karnataka.
As many as 167 Indian mothers die during every 100,000 live births, a rate higher than Cambodia with 161, and 22 infants die after every 1,000 live births, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare data.
The rising number of child births in hospitals, correlated with falling maternal and child mortality, has been a result of government programmes, such as Janani Suraksha Yojana. But the WaterAid study indicates that unhygienic hospitals may be a reason why India’s maternal and infant mortality rates are almost similar to Cambodia, Bangladesh and Nicaragua, all poorer nations in terms of per capita income.
Source: Sample Registration Survey, 2013 and 2014; World Bank Infant Mortality, World Bank, Maternal Mortality Rate, 2015
The comparison between six states on the basis of maternal and infant mortality rate conducted by WaterAid revealed shocking results with Andhra Pradesh being the state with 28% has the lowest percentage of toilets in health facilities, according to the data released by health ministry.
More than 50% of healthcare facilities in the other states had toilets, but the survey indicates that these may not be maintained well or have water.
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