Assam's world-famous tea gardens are deadly for pregnant women

Researchers who investigated 150 maternal deaths discovered that 69 per cent of all deaths were among the tea garden community

“Mothers are now able to reach us even during the monsoon,” said Arundhati Das, 52, pointing at the asphalt road outside a one-room government health sub-centre in Bhojkhowa village. The centre serves a population of 10,000 in Assam’s flood-prone Sonitpur district and Das has been in charge of it since 2001. There is a bed in one corner, and a baby weighing scale on top of it. Hanging on the wall are cloth pouches with immunisation cards to keep track of the vaccinations that children in the area have received.

The sub-centre that provides primary health care—iron tablets, information