India ranks second only to China in terms of population and what’s even more thrilling is the rate of conception here in India. India has a birth rate of 21 that suggests that the population doubles itself in the next thirty years to come. Are you worried? Don’t. This isn’t happening. We will increase in number but double isn’t gonna happen. Why? I’ll tell you.
The Constitution has laid down the formation of various schemes for pregnant women in the rural areas where the conception rates are higher than the urban sector. Under this scheme, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare acknowledges the formation of Anganwadi workers and Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) in the villages to cater to the needs of the pregnant females during and after their term, by supplementing them nutritionally and also by performing regular checkups for them. Isn’t this fascinating? The reality will shock you!
Apparently, these days the villages have preferential women appointed to such posts, women who belong to the family of the panchas or the ones who are influential ; the food supplies and various other necessities that are sent for the ‘janani’ never reaches her. Besides, the food items are either sold at higher prices to people in order to earn profits or is given as food for cattle (yes!)! So the stuff that a nurturing mother’s supposed to eat is being fed to the animals! And I have substantial proof for this. The NRHM scams, the altered reports, all that stuff is available on the internet for you to see. What they won’t tell you is the science behind this that needs immediate attention.
The food that’s sent is prepared after analyzing the calorific requirements of the pregnant mother and the foetus. If she doesn’t get this stuff and the medicinal supplements then the already rising rate of neural tube defects that is common in babies will never go low. Every third pregnant lady in the rural areas is anemic. If she’s not given this aid, then we’ll never be able to control the loss of maternal life that happens so commonly during deliveries.
The shocker is the fact that the one who’s supposed to provide all this stuff to a pregnant lady is a female who’s a mother herself in most of the cases. Has corruption crept into us to this extent that the mother forgets the pain that she takes in order to bring a child into the world? That she’s ready to let another mother suffer? And then I see women activists fighting with the law for being called ‘tension’ in commercials, or being targeted as weak or being harassed and stuff. When a woman isn’t ready to respect another woman, how and why do they expect men to change? Isn’t this an issue that should have been checked before? Are we truly nearing to ‘a survival of the fittest ‘ kind of a society? It’s high time we gave this a thought!
Note: Image used in this post is only for representational purpose.
