By IANS,
New Delhi : Every seven minutes, one woman in India dies because of complications during childbirth or pregnancy. In order to address this problem, an NGO here will launch the Million Mums web campaign on the National Safe Motherhood Day April 11.
Trying to bring to the forefront the tragic reality of a woman facing risk to her life during a natural process such as childbirth, the White Ribbon Alliance India’s (WRAI) main aim in launching this web campaign is to spread awareness about healthcare for mothers-to-be and speak out against needless maternal mortality.
Aparajita Gogoi, country head of WRAI, said: “In very simple words what the Million Mums campaign wants to achieve is to bring together a million mothers, or more, and raise a million pounds, at least, in order to mobilise this campaign to bring down maternal mortality”.
However, owing to the fact that the campaign was launched in Britain by the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) – which launched WRAI in 1999 – there are a few restrictions in the campaign to be launched here.
“There are a few restrictions. Since the Million Mums campaign is a web campaign, only English speaking and credit card holding individuals can donate. One pound comes to around Rs.84.
“Yet we are trying to reach out to as many people as we possibly can by saying that with the money that they donate, things like pregnancy kits, pregnancy charts, curtains for the labour room and other amenities can be bought – encouraging women to go for institutional birth and avoiding unwanted risks,” Gogoi said.
Last year, WRAI had launched the Deliver Now for Women and Children campaign on Safe Motherhood Day. The focus was again to bring the attention of policy makers, politicians and the common man towards doing more for women and children’s health, especially in the rural areas.