Given the poor health indicators as reflected in the Human Development Report, it’s expected that MLAs would raise questions relating to developmental issues.
BHOPAL: Just what makes an elected leader ask questions in his or her respective House other than the lure of money? This is a question that is doing the rounds in Madhya Pradesh where the winter session of the state Assembly started two days back.
Given the state’s BIMARU status and the poor health indicators as reflected in the Human Development Report and other studies, it’s expected that the MLAs would raise questions relating to developmental issues. But clearly, these issues are of little concern to them.
Centre for Advocacy, which has been tracking the Assembly sessions in MP, has come out with the data that indicates that dying women and children are not a priority for the honourable Members of the legislative Assembly.
Madhya Pradesh has an alarmingly high maternal mortality rate (MMR) where 498 pregnant women die per one lakh births in the state. Statistics show that the scenario in case of infant mortality rate (IMR) was equally alarming (83 out of 1000 children die before their first birthday). But does it affect the MLAs? Not really. Even the women MLAs do not bother themselves with such issues.
Interestingly, of the 1483 questions taken up for discussions in the July-August Monsoon session of the MP Assembly this year, only 10 questions pertained to women and children. “Not a single question was asked on the issue of maternal mortality or women’s health,’’ R K Sharma of the Centre for Advocacy told the DNA. Questions were raised only about mid-day meals, money sanctioned for the purpose and porridge served at anganwadis.
Sharma said approximately 11,000 women die every year due to maternity complications, but members of the highest policy making forum do not consider it an issue worth a debate in the House.
In an earlier budget session, of the 5348 questions, only 51 were related to women and children. Madhya Pradesh, along with UP and Bihar, accounts for 15 per cent of global neo-natal deaths (deaths within four weeks of birth) and 50 per cent of the country. When asked, Satya Dev Katare, a former Minister and now a leading Congress MLA, conceded that such issues were not raised in the past. But he underlined the need for a focus on such problems.
It was only recently that United Nations’ Director of the Millennium Campaign Salil Shetty had expressed concern in Bhopal at the tardy speed of implementing various health and environmental programmes by different state governments across India.
Shetty said that even after five years of the launch of the global programme, India was off track in many sectors. Speaking to the DNA sometime back, Ashish Bose, one of the country’s leading demographers, opined that MP would take some more time to shed the infamous tag because the various social indicators did not improve.
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