New Delhi:
After the explosive report on Delhi's water being contaminated with the super bug, British medical journal 'The Lancet' has again highlighted India, this time in a survey on stillbirths.
The report says India has the highest number of stillbirths in the world. In 2009, more than six lakh children were born dead in India.
In fact, the study says India along with, Pakistan, Nigeria, China and Bangladesh account for half of all stillbirths worldwide.
"Typical complications of pregnancy, hypertension diabetes are still killing a lot of babies in low-income countries. Infections like malaria and syphilis still affecting many babies world over-third group," says J. Frederik, Author, The Lancet.
In India, the stillbirth rates vary from 20 to 66 per 1,000 births in different states. If one compares the figure with countries like Finland and Singapore that have the lowest childbirth rates (2 per 1000), it is rather shocking as well as embarrassing.
Unflatteringly, the stillbirth rates have declined by barely one percent per year in the last 15 years - from 3 million in 1995 to 2.6 million in 2009.
Coming just weeks after the dismal picture on the child sex ratio painted by the census report, it's yet another blot for India where prenatal care for lakhs of women is virtually non-existent, care that probably could have turned these statistics around.