New York, May 28 (IANS) Maternal and reproductive health care across the world is often sub-standard and inaccessible, yet many governments, including in India, are not doing enough to address grievances and track problems, Human Rights Watch said Friday.
Human Rights Watch issued a roundup of its reporting on reproductive health issues in advance of the International Day of Action for Women’s Health May 28.
The 10-page roundup, ‘Unaccountable: Addressing Reproductive Health Care Gaps’ illustrates health system accountability failures in Asia, Latin America, Africa, the United States, and Europe.
‘Governments have long pledged to reduce maternal deaths and improve reproductive health care,’ said Janet Walsh, deputy women’s rights director at Human Rights Watch.
‘Yet many aren’t taking even basic steps, like enabling patients to lodge grievances, addressing complaints, establishing health standards, and tracking births and deaths.’
In interviews around the world, hundreds of women and girls have described the pursuit of reproductive health care as an obstacle course, the statement said.
Women in India told Human Rights Watch that they had never heard of a way to make complaints about maternal health care problems. A few said they had submitted complaints, but were pressured by health professionals to withdraw these.
In US immigration detention facilities, many women said they were never informed that they could submit grievances about health care problems, and some feared retaliation if they complained.
‘Missing or unclear standards hamper efforts to monitor quality of care, and to ensure that health care is available to all who need it,’ Walsh said. ‘Accountability is impossible without clear standards.’
In India, even though birth and death registration are mandatory, many births and deaths are not recorded.
An estimated 26 million births and 9 million deaths occur in India every year, but only 53 percent of births and 48 percent of deaths are registered.
Estimates of maternal deaths each year in India range from 60,000 to nearly 120,000, but without better birth and death registration and improved data collection systems, the actual numbers are impossible to know, the group said.
‘Ignoring grievances and failing to set standards or monitor progress undermines governments’ lofty goals for saving lives and promoting reproductive health,’ Walsh said.
