Save the Children, an international NGO, on Tuesday claimed here that maternal deaths and child mortality can be dramatically slashed if efforts are made to improve services for mothers and children during humanitarian crises.
Its report “State of the World’s Mothers (SOWM) 2014” released here said investing in girls and women would help ensure mothers have the vital support they need to care for their children following any calamity.The report focused on mothers in humanitarian crises in order to better understand and respond to their needs. It cited the example of conflict-ridden Afghanistan and Ethiopia and said the two countries have succeeded in reducing maternal deaths by almost two-thirds since 2000 by training midwives, improving immunisation coverage and raising girls’ education levels.
It further revealed that of the 178 countries surveyed this year, Finland continues to be the best place to be a mother while Somalia is at the bottom. India’s ranking, this year, is at 137. last year, India ranked 142 out of 176 countries.“In India, and across the densely populated South Asia region, we can save mothers’ and children’s lives despite the effects of a humanitarian crisis,” avers Thomas Chandy, chief executive of Save the Children.
He claimed that Save the Children was among the first NGOs to provide relief in flood-hit Uttarakhand and cyclone and flood-devastated Odisha and maintained that it would “also be among the last to leave.”“Worldwide, women and children are often much more likely than men to die in a disaster, whether man-made or natural. And each year, thousands more mothers and children die in conflict-settings than fighters do in battle,”said Chandy.
The report called upon the States, donors and civil society to build stronger institutions and promote early action, social protection, disaster risk reduction and strong health systems that provide universal health coverage. It has also called upon to design emergency interventions with a longer-term view and the specific needs of mothers and new-borns in mind.