Manual of Reproductive Health Care Susmita Bhattacharya
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Reproductive Health of Women: The Challenges1

Health of people is important for the national development. Though constitution of India gives equal rights to its citizen; yet a large section of the society does not get equal opportunity. Women constitute nearly 50% of the Indian population. The health of women and children is important for overall development of the nation.
After independence of India in 1947, health of women and children received attention. Five-Year plans allocated resources for health programs for women and children. In spite of the fact that women are major contributors to the economic growth of country, women suffered high morbidity and mortality.
Reproductive health of individual is an important aspect of health. Woman has to go through various stages in her life cycle. She goes through menarche, pregnancy, childbirth and menopause. At each stage, her reproductive health needs are special. The reproductive health is related to sexuality and sexual behavior. The high-risk behavior is an important risk factor for sexually transmitted infections.
Traditionally reproductive health is acknowledged, accepted and addressed in relation to maternity. Hence the health services for women are largely maternity oriented. Nonetheless in India maternal mortality is still high. There is large disparity in maternal mortality across the states, across urban and rural areas and between different socioeconomic classes. The women suffer pregnancy related complications, infections and other morbidities.
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Problem of abortion is yet another issue related to reproductive health of women. The problem of unsafe abortion is a challenge for health services. Sociocultural factors, lack of abortion care, poor quality of services, apathy and discriminatory attitude of service providers are responsible for it.
Although National Family Planning Programme was started back in 1952, there exists a large unmet needs in relation to family planning. There are programs which are related to reproductive health of women, rules and laws related to welfare of women. Yet it reaches few in need of it. There is an urgent need to reach women in all the sections of the society.
Reproductive health has to be recognized as integral part of total health of women. Only then the quality of the life of women will improve. This will help in overall development of nation.