IN JAMSHEDPUR A GIRL MARRIED A DOG

In Jamshedpur (Jharkand) Girl married to dog to ward off evil spirits
A 12-year-old girl was married off to a dog in Jharkhand's Jamshedpur city to ward off evil spirits, a tribal priest said.
Soni, a resident of Ulidih colony in Jamshedpur, around 140 km from in Ranchi, was wedded to a dog Sunday because she had developed additional teeth, which is considered a bad omen among tribals in the region.
"In a tribal society, if a girl develops additional teeth it is considered a bad omen not only for the girl, but also for her family members and society. To ward off the evil spirit, we get the girl married to a dog," said Naresh Manki, a tribal priest.
"The marriage is solemnised like a normal marriage and a feast is also organised for those who participate in the ceremony," he added.

INDIAN MATERNAL MORTALITY FIGURES & CHILD FATALITIES

Every 7 minutes a woman dies due to childbirth complications’

From Kounteya Sinha | TNN

New Delhi: Avoidable complications during child birth are killing 78,000 women in India every year. This means on an average, one woman dies from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth every seven minutes.
But not only the mothers are dying one million children born in India are dying every year even before they become 28 days old. A child born in India is 14 times more likely to die during the first 28 days than one born in the US or UK. These are some of the shocking findings of UNICEF’s ‘State of the World’s Children 2009’ report released on Thursday.
According to the report, an Indian woman is 300 times more likely to die in childbirth or from pregnancy-related complications than women in America or England. For every mother who dies, 20 others suffer pregnancy-related illness. Around 10 million women annually experience such adverse outcomes. Despite an increase in institutional deliveries, 60% of pregnant women still deliver their babies at home.
In India, more than two thirds of all maternal deaths occur in a handful of states — UP, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, MP, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Assam. In UP, one in every 42 women faces risk of maternal death, compared to 1 in 500 women in Kerala.