SAHAYOG. 2006. Voices from the Ground: Women Show the Way.

SAHAYOG. 2006. Voices from the Ground: Women Show the Way. Lucknow, India: SAHAYOG. 34p. http://www. sahayogindia.org/what's%20new/Voices_book.pdf

This publication takes as its point of departure the fact that policies and programmes on maternal health have traditionally been viewed through the lens of coste effectiveness, technically viable solutions or medical appropriateness. As such, Voices from the Ground: Women Show the Way elegantly details the maternal health concerns of those who are actually on the receiving end of policies and programmes in India. This publication is the output of policy dialogues on maternal health organised by the Indian partners of the Women's Health and Rights Advocacy Partnership (WHRAP) in New Delhi on 27-29 December 2005, the goal of which was to create a direct interface between community women from different states, policymakers, programme planners, parliamentarians, and the media.

In the report, between sections that discuss women's rights to maternal health, community care and hospital care, the causes of maternal deaths, and the standardisation of care, are the harrowing narratives of the women themselves. Intimately detailed are the realities of pregnant women's lives who are at risk in India due to poverty, isolation, malnutrition, a lack of medicine, and having their basic rights denied. Also covered is the disconnect between health policy and what is actually happening on the ground, along with the fact that only a small segment of the population is able to benefit from a rapidly prospering and modernising India. The publication concludes with four useful boxes covering: 1) Recommendations of 'Voices from the Ground'; 2) Unsafe Motherhood: The Shameful Figures; 3) The Deadly Cocktail (the 'four delays'); and 4) Abortion Related Deaths.