Aparajita has her work cut out for her. Even as India touts its economic achievements, it is among the five countries with the worst mortality rate at 250-300 per 1,00,000. Though the government has good schemes such as the flagship Janani Suraksha Yojana, and a sizeable budget for health under the National Rural Health Mission, the real problem, believes Aparajita, is turning government policies into action on the ground.

   There are two big bottlenecks here, she points out. One is systemic— whether government hospitals and blood banks for example function optimally, whether doctors are sufficient.. The other is community and society related.

   Child marriage, the pressure to bear children quickly, the lack of access to family planning information or services or the lack of women’s decision making on matters such as family size and absence of reproductive rights are the main reasons for high maternal deaths. In the last 10-12 years the percentage of women between 20-24 years of age who had been married before the age of 18 declined from 54 per cent in 1992-1993 to 47 per cent in 2005-2006. “In the meantime, India has gone nuclear but almost 50 per cent girls are getting married before 18 like in the 1990s,” says Aparajita.

Child marriage, the pressure to bear children quickly, the lack of access to family planning information or services or the lack of women’s decision making on matters such as family size and absence of reproductive rights are the main reasons for high maternal deaths.

   Another bottleneck is that most women at the grassroots are unaware of government schemes that entitle them to better health services. That is where advocacy organisations such as CEDPA India and the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood India step in. The aim is to create awareness about the fact that these are needless deaths. “It is really not rocket science. The whole challenge is reaching the woman, her family and the community at large,” Aparajita points out.

   Under Aparajita’s stewardship advocacy strategies have been fine tuned. “Advocacy is not about merely finding faults. Advocacy is also about finding solutions, in investing enough to see support can be provided to see that our policies and programs are implemented.

   However I think in India we have perfected the art of criticising everyone and everything and not doing enough oneself,” she says scathingly.

   The Alliance which has 1,500 organisational members has been busy addressing itself to ensure accountability for maternal deaths—be it at the level of family, community or the government health system. To attain accountability, they use the techniques of checklists to determine availability of facilities at health establishments, verbal autopsies to retrace the events that led to maternal death and public hearings (jan sunwai) which provide a safe space for women to come and share their experiences as well as talk to change makers such as government officials, local panchayats, local MPs or MLAs and activists.

Dr Aparajita Gogoi receiving the Women: Inspiration and Enterprise award from Ms. Sarah Brown, former first lady of the UK

   In a shrewd move, the Alliance has roped in celebrities such as Shabana Azmi, Raveena Tandon, Pooja Bedi, and Shivani Wazir Pasricha to ensure visibility for the cause. The most high profile of the events organised by the Alliance was a march in 2000 to the Taj Mahal, the exquisite monument dedicated to Mumtaz Mahal who married at 15, produced 14 children and died in childbirth.

   Perhaps the Alliance’s greatest collective achievement was to set in motion a process that resulted in the issue of maternal health being heard and advocated by multiple stakeholders and multiple levels-from women from communities at the public hearings, to celebrities, to the press.

   The Alliance also set in motion a process that resulted in the government changing the law so that auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs) could take over simple procedures such as prescribing antibiotics or starting intravenous drips.

   Aparajita’s leadership qualities surfaced early. A Ph. D (in International Politics) from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, and a postgraduate diploma in Journalism, behind her, she joined Development Alternatives, an NGO dedicated to providing sustainable livelihoods to the underprivileged. As communications specialist, she says she loved the job. However, her major grouse was that the Communications Unit was always considered a mere support unit relegated to “support” functions. Six years later, she took on an assignment in the advocacy and communications unit of CEDPA India.

   Here she was given the additional designation of national coordinator of the Alliance. Working her way to become senior advisor, in February 2009 she was appointed executive director of CEDPA India.

   Her highly successful advocacy on behalf of CEDPA and the Alliance won her the “Women: Inspiration and Enterprise” (WIE) Humanitarian Award for a woman whose “good work on behalf of humanity helps make our world a better place.” The award presented at the prestigious ‘Women: Inspiration and Enterprise’ Symposium in New York September last year places her in the company of famous women like Melinda Gates (WIE Inspiration Award) and Queen Rania of Jordan (WIE Outstanding Leadership Award).

“I think in India we have perfected the art of criticising everyone and everything and not doing enough oneself,” says Aparajita scathingly.