No kidding with Bollywood's yum mums

A recent report on India having the highest number of infant mortality has triggered off an alarm among some of our well-known mommas, who’ve come together to do something. 

Sushmita Sen, Twinkle Khanna, Mini Mathur and Maria Goretti among others have rallied together to create awareness about the issue and form support groups for new mothers. They also plan to address key issues — of malnutrition, lack of basic health facilities, lack of neo-natal care — with the government. 

“It is of much concern and distress that in a country, which is expected to overtake the rest of world in growth and development, there lacks a public health and economic system access which can support child survival and bring down the inflating children death toll. Each one of us needs to realize that children are the future of the country and therefore the first step towards development is to save children's lives,” says Sushmita Sen, who’s also a mother of two.

What has also rankled the quartet about the report ‘A Fair Chance At Life’ by International Child Rights NGO is the revelation that reductions in child mortality appeared to focus on children from better-off communities leaving children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds behind. Twinkle Kumar minces no words, “Each child is a precious gift, and we must do whatever we can to protect our young ones who are the future; it is not fair to see them dying.”  Echoing similar concerns is Mini Mathur-Khan. “Motherhood does not recognize celebrity. The prime concern for every mother, irrespective of economic status is to keep her child healthy, safe and well-fed and my heart goes out to all those mothers who are unable to do so,” says Mini. 

Actor Maria Goretti sums it up, “As a mom in an independent, forward surging India, it breaks my heart to hear about the state of little children in our country... if we cannot nurture ‘Life’ in all its innocence, we as a human race have failed miserably... Even an animal in the jungle can understand, so why can't we?”