Progress for women and children in India health survey may offer global lessons

By Nita Bhalla NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Simple interventions such as using community workers to promote breast-feeding in villages have helped India improve the health of its women and children and could be good global examples, say aid workers, citing early findings from a U.N.-backed survey. The Rapid Survey on Children, conducted by the ministry of women and child development and supported by the U.N.'s children's agency, UNICEF, is the first national survey on child and maternal health in India in the last decade. The findings - yet to be verified by the government - reveal that while indicators such as child malnutrition and child marriage remain high, progress in development among India's 1.2 billion people shows there are lessons for elsewhere.

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