Reducing the ratio of maternal deaths by 75 percent is a global priority, agreed upon as a U.N. Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Womens eNews reports that little progress is being made in India in maternal health.

While infant mortality deaths have been reduced by 30 percent in India, maternal mortality has not.

Inequality is one reason why India contributes more deaths than any other country to the global figure of 500,000 women and girls dying from pregnancy, childbirth or unsafe abortion each year. India is responsible for a quarter of these maternal deaths, the vast majority of which are preventable.

One in 7,300 girls dies as a result of pregnancy, childbirth or unsafe abortion in the developed world. In India, the number is one in 70.

Besides a bundle of maternal health problems stemming from poverty, geography, local customs and inequity of health services in India, there’s a modern-day complication associated with India’s success story.

Hi tech medical equipment is available not only for rich Indians but for foreigners seeking the country’s less expensive but high-quality medical care devoted to gynecological surgery, as an example.

In the midst of major new women’s reproductive health care technology in India, for poor women, there is often no maternal care and always ‘not enough’. Anne

Read: India’s High Maternal Death Rate Can Be Cured via Women’s eNews