jaipur after 16 newborns died in just two weeks at the government jawaharlal nehru jln hospital in ajmer this month the deaths were explained as the result of premature birth low birth weight septicaemia and respiratory trouble many of the women admitted at this hospital had arrived from areas near ajmer many of them from rural locationsthe health services have been neglecting the poor say experts why are the deaths highest among the poor and marginalized asks chhaya pachauri of jan swasthya abhiyan a look at data for the state from the annual health survey ahs 201213 the latest such available shows that infant mortality rate the number of children under the age of one year who die per 1000 live births is 59 in rajasthans rural areas and 38 in the urban centres neonatal mortality rate is 40 for the rural areas and 26 for urban ones this clearly shows that ruralborn babies are disadvantaged at birth compared to urban oneswhile ahs data show that 242 of deliveries occur in the home in rural settings only 113 urban women deliver babies at home less than 60 of women expecting babies get their blood tested for haemoglobin levels while 84 of urban expectant women undergo this test just a little over 10 of rural motherstobe are administered iron and folic acid tablets during pregnancy while 223 of urban pregnant women in the state receive them infant mortality according to the ahs 201213 is a decisive indicator of the health services system chhaya pachauli says our health outreach services are extremely poor since many primary health centres just dont function people are forced to depend on secondary or tertiary healthcare services for even basic problems this leads to delays in accessing treatment and hampers the continuum of care the system fails to ensure healthy pregnancies and child births a weak fragile anaemic woman with inadequate spacing between child births who has never received antenatal care cannot be expected to give birth to a healthy baby state health minister rajendra rathore after a meeting with officials in the state capital has instructed staff to take special care of newborns delivered in government hospitals a team of the national commission for the protection of child rights has also taken stock of the situation after the crib deaths in ajmer would it be reasonable to assume that officials will also look into the health services provided to girls and women