Negotiating Rights

On an average, worldwide, one woman dies every minute due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth. India has a large share of the 500,000 maternal deaths estimated globally, and within India, perhaps the highest number of deaths occur in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

UP has the highest number of maternal deaths: nearly one-fourth of the total maternal deaths in the country are reported from Uttar Pradesh/ Uttaranchal – the northern states which account for one in every seven live births. Hundreds of thousands more women are estimated to undergo illness and disability as a result of pregnancy and childbirth or abortion.

“Negotiating Rights” is an effort to build coalitions towards improving maternal health in Uttar Pradesh, by engaging simultaneously with policy actors, programme managers, service providers and women users of maternal health services.

The effort is anchored by SAHAYOG, a voluntary organization that has been working on women’s right to maternal health with partner organizations since 2000.

SAHAYOG proposes to carry out Action Research with all concerned stakeholders towards finding points of consensus regarding effective ways to improve the situation.

Maternal mortality is not just a health issue; it is a human rights issue.

“It is time to recognize that avoidable maternal mortality is a human rights problem on a massive scale.” Paul Hunt, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health

Several international conventions including the Commission for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), and the Beijing conference on women (FWCW) have emphasized women’s rights to a healthy and safe pregnancy and childbirth.