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The mandate of the Committee was massive, to assess the status of women in India in all aspects of their lives, keeping in mind the diversities (class, caste, religion, ethnicity, region, abilities, age groups etc.), complexities and paradoxes that prevail in our society.

A confidential system of enquiry into maternal mortality, based on that used in England and Wales, was introduced in Malaysia in 1991 with a view to identifying deficiencies in care and recommending remedial measures.

The British first discovered female infanticide in India in 1789. Jonathan Duncan, then the resident in Benares province was asked by the Bengal council to settle the revenues in the province acquired by the raja of Benares.

Despite its many advantages, the employment of women in economic activity in India has been associated with increased mortality for infants and young children. Simultaneously, narrower gender differentials in child mortality among employed women have been noted.

Maternal death has been recognized as an area of maternity care that requires urgent attention. The most striking feature about maternal health today is the extraordinary difference in maternal death rates between developed and developing countries.

Every minute of every day a woman dies as a result of pregnancy or childbirth. The loss per annum of 500,000 women is mind boggling. A maternal death is the outcome of a chain of events and disadvantages throughout a woman's life.

In 1991, an article on the Maternity Care Program in Matlab, Bangladesh, reported a substantial decline in direct obstetric deaths in the intervention area, but not in the control area. The decline was attributed primarily to the posting of midwives at the village level.

India has made appreciable progress in improving its overall health status since the beginning of the century. The crude death rate has declined, but there is no sign of a decline in the maternal mortality rate. Also, most of the evidence relating to high maternal mortality rates is fragmentary.