C-section deliveries in Mumbai private hospitals increased substantially: RTI reply shows
MUMBAI: An RTI query has revealed that the proportion of C-section (Caesarean) deliveries in the private hospitals in Mumbai increased substantially between 2010 and 2015, compared with the government hospitals.
OnlineRTI.com, an organisation which is supporting Mumbai-based researcher Subarna Ghosh, who recently initiated an 'online petition' on Change.org about of caesarean procedures had submitted a query under the Right to Information in this regard.
A year-wise data of deliveries in Mumbai was provided by the office of assistant health officer of Public Health Department of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai.
Accordingly, in 2010, there were 87,509 normal deliveries in municipal and state government-run hospitals in Mumbai, while number of C-section deliveries was 9,593 (five per cent of the total 1,84,916 deliveries). In the private hospitals, there were 59,540 normal deliveries and 21,299 C-section ones (11 per cent of the aforesaid total).
In 2015, there were 64,816 normal deliveries in government/municipal hospitals and 21,744 C-section ones (12 per cent of total 1,74,902 deliveries). In the same year, there were 44,732 normal deliveries in private hospitals and a whopping 34,465 (23 per cent of total) C-section deliveries.
Preethi Herman, head of Change.org India, said over 1.4 lakh people had so far supported Subarna's petition on the Change.org.
Subarna submitted her petition to the Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi who wrote to the Union Ministry for Health and Family Welfare and asked it to look into the issue.
"Caesarean deliveries have become a business. The hospitals and doctors are making money off unsuspecting women and pushing them towards surgical deliveries," Subarna's petition said.