Udaipur:
The world's seven billionth baby will be born today. The United Nations reckons it is likely to be an Indian child, given that 51 babies are born in the country very minute.
It's calculations also say that the milestone baby is likely to be born in India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh. While history is made and recorded, some more sobering calculations. The United Nations Population Fund also predicts that India's population will be more than China's by 2025.
In the global context, a world of seven billion is being considered as a mark of better quality of life. But this milestone has little meaning in places like Kotra in Udaipur district of Rajasthan.
Benefits of development have not percolated to this predominantly tribal population here. Literacy is very low among both girls and boys and a majority of the adolescents here are married and have started child rearing.
The poorest usually live in the farthest hamlets, which tend to be uphill and difficult to reach. Also, "the poor are people who are continuously working outside their houses to earn a living, so they are not likely to be found in the home. Only in the first week after delivering a child is a woman found at home. So it takes a lot more effort for health workers to reach people and then examine them and provide services," says Dr Sharad Iyengar, Paediatrician and Public Health Physician.
The National Rural Health Mission has thus been unable to reach out to many marginalised communities. There are implications for every aspect of development - for eradicating poverty and for improving maternal and child health.
Institutional deliveries are uncommon, as is immunisation of the newborn. Many of the mothers have their babies at home.
"Surely we need to continue to work to make sure that in most of the villages and poor communities, their women have access to not just family planning but also reproductive health services. We still have 3,00,000 women in the world who die completely unnecessarily during child birth simply because there are lacking basic services. And this is most severe in two parts of the world - one is in Sub-Saharan Africa and the other is in South Asia," said William Ryan, Regional Communications Adviser, UNFPA.
According to the United Nations Population Fund, the seven-billion milestone is an opportunity to re-evaluate and improve systems that have failed to show results for the people.