26 November 2024

Women and Adolescent Girls’ Nutrition

The Challenge, Poor nutrition among women of reproductive age (15-49 years) has long-lasting consequences. Other than impacting the woman’s health, it also increases her risk of giving birth to an undernourished child, thereby perpetuating the cycle of malnutrition across generations. The risk of bearing an undern...
17 October 2024

Photo essay: Akha The Boat of Hope

Across the difficult riverine islands in Assam, ingenious Solar Direct-Drive Refrigeration (SD-DR) units at the Boat Clinic have entirely changed how health workers like Nirupoma deliver immunization services. Boat Clinics are reaching more than three million people, mostly poor and marginalized, living in Assam'...
17 October 2024

Akha: The Boat of Hope

The perennially raging Brahmaputra River is eerily calm today. The low currents are stalling the floating Boat Clinic's arrival to Noor's village in Bongaigaon district in the northeastern Indian state of Assam. Today, nine-month-old Noor Khatun will be vaccinated against Measles and Rubella (MR) and Japanese ence...
29 July 2024

Digital Health Enterprise Planning Course

NEW DELHI, India, 01 July, 2024- Globally, the rapid pace of technological advancements in digital health catalyzes a transformation in healthcare delivery and how patients experience it. Healthcare professionals must continuously update their skills to stay ahead of the curve. Keeping this in mind, UNICEF in Indi...
22 April 2024

How Sumitra Emerged Hero for Adolescents and Women in Odisha

Sumitra Juanga, at the tender age of sixteen, has wisdom, strength, and resolve in her spirit that is way beyond her years. She is the reason why many women and adolescent girls in her village of Talabaruda in Odisha are going to lead an improved way of life than they previously would have led. Previously destined...
23 July 2020

Effective supportive supervision in immunization

Madhya Pradesh is the second largest state in India after Rajasthan with an area of 308,252 km2, and a population of 72 million (census 2011). The state is divided into 10 divisions and 52 districts for administrative purposes, with Indore and Bhopal as the largest cities with roughly 21 million and 18 million pop...
01 July 2019

‘Saviour’ SNCU strikes problems out of newborns’ way

In any family, the birth of a child is a reason for jubilation. At Sapna Devi’s home in Sarochiya, Bihar, however, the birth of her twin sons was overshadowed by a deep sense of anxiety. Born premature, the first-born—“he had light-brown eyes,” said the mother wistfully—lost the battle of life early on. But the se...
01 July 2019

Every child deserves the best start when they come into this world

A brick kiln worker, Tetri Devi weighed a mere 32 kgs during her pregnancy. She was not only anemic but was also suffering from complications of diarrhoea and malnutrition. To support her family, she worked in harsh conditions in a brick kiln till the eighth month of her complicated pregnancy. It was during this d...
24 June 2019

Trained foot-soldiers of India’s healthcare system stir up a silent revolution

From assisting a high-risk pregnancy to guiding young mothers on exclusive breastfeeding, nutrition, and safe hygiene practices, the silent ranks of the healthcare system in India—the ASHAs, Anganwadi workers, ANMs—are pushing for a healthier tomorrow. UNICEF- IKEA partnership is playing a catalytic role in suppor...
06 June 2019

Maternal health

A moment of unimaginable joy is what a mother feels when a newborn is placed on her arms – a joy every mother should have the right to experience. But for many pregnant women in India this memory will never come to be, the moment of birth is often frightening. Maternal mortality is considered a key health indicat...
03 June 2019

Health

Ending preventable maternal, newborn and child deaths, India has made significant progress in reducing maternal mortality, neonatal mortality and under-5 child deaths. In 2020, maternal mortality was reduced to 97 per one lakh live births, neonatal mortality to 20 per 1000 live births and under-5 mortality to 32 p...
09 June 2018

UNICEF India commends India’s impressive progress in reducing maternal deaths – statement on MMR report SRS 2014 - 2016

NEW DELHI, 9 June 2018 - “India has shown impressive progress in reducing maternal deaths, with nearly 1000 fewer women now dying of pregnancy related complications each month in India as compared to 2013” said Dr. Yasmin Ali Haque, country representative of UNICEF in India. She further added, “What is even more h...