>Date: Thu, 11 Feb 1999 11:13:46 -0500 (EST)
>From: owner-press-release at Census.GOV
>Subj: Census Bureau News
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> EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12:01 A.M. EST, FEBRUARY 11, 1999 (THURSDAY)
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> Public Information Office CB99-26
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>Victoria Velkoff
>301-457-1371
>
> Women's Health and Education in India Profiled in
> New Reports from the Census Bureau
>
> The fertility rate in India declined to 3.4 children per woman in
>1992-93, down from 4.7 in 1980. However, illiteracy remained a serious
>problem more than 200 million Indian women were illiterate in 1991,
>according to two new reports released today from the Commerce Department's
>Census Bureau. The two reports are entitled Women's Health In India and
>Women's Education In India.
>
> "Many factors impact a woman's health, including her educational level,"
>said Victoria Velkoff, author of both reports.
>
> Other highlights from the reports include:
>
> More than 100,000 Indian women die each year from pregnancy-related
> causes. UNICEF estimated that the maternal mortality ratio in India
> was 453 deaths per 100,000 births in 1993. The leading factor
> contributing to high maternal mortality is the lack of access to
> health care.
>
> The most recent National Family Health Survey, 1992-93, found that
> in the four years preceding the survey, 37 percent of all pregnant
> women in India received no prenatal care during their pregnancies.
>
> Census data show that in 1971, only 22 percent of women and 46
> percent of men were literate. By 1991, 39 percent of women and 64
> percent of men could read and write.
>
> Forty-one percent of the literate population, including only 13
> percent of Indian women, had more than a primary education, according
> to the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India, 1993. Poor
> families are likely to keep girls at home to care for younger
> siblings or to work in family enterprises.
>
> The reports are part of the Census Bureau's Women of the World series,
>which focuses on social and economic gender issues in different countries
>of the world. Research for the profiles was funded by the U.S. Agency for
>International Development's Office of Women in Development. The third
>profile in the series, Women and the Economy of India, will be available
>in a few months.
>
> -X-