Spurt in Caesarean deliveries in private hospitals: RTI reply

Caesarean deliveries in private hospitals here have shot up substanitally, a civic body has said in response to an RTI query, which contended that such a procedure has become a business.

Number of Caesarean deliveries in private hospitals increased substantially between 2010 and 2015, compared to government hospitals, the reply obtained by OnlineRTI.com from the office of the Assistant Health Officer in Public Health Department of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, revealed.

Flagging the data, researcher Subarna Ghosh, who has initiated an online petition on Change.org on the issue, said "Caesarean deliveries have become a business. The hospitals and doctors are making money off unsuspecting women and pushing them towards surgical deliveries."

OnlineRTI.com, an organisation supporting Ghosh, had in July 2016 submitted a query under the Right to Information. Year-wise data of deliveries in Mumbai were provided in September 2016 by the office of Assistant Health Officer in Public Health Department of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai.

The organisation has shared the data with Ghosh.

As per the data, in 2010 there were 87,509 normal deliveries in municipal and state-run hospitals in Mumbai, whereas there were 9,593 caesarean deliveries. In private hospitals, there were 59,540 normal deliveries and 21,299 caesarean deliveries.

In 2015 there were 64,816 normal deliveries in government and municipal hospitals and 21,744 caesarean deliveries. In the same year, there were 44,732 normal deliveries in private hospitals and 34,465 caesarean deliveries.

Change.org India head Preethi Herman said over 1.4 lakh people have so far supported Ghosh's petition.

Ghosh also submitted her petition to Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi.