women in India are an unhealthy lot. According to a recent World Bank report, Improving Women's Health in India , the female population of India is left behind when it comes to health care even though the country has made significant progress in social and health monitors like life expectancy, infant mortality, fertility and literacy. The death rate among females under the age of 30 is very high compared to males in the same group. India also ranks very high in the list of pregnancy-related deaths in the world.

According to Anne Tinker, the main author of the report, the average Indian woman is almost 100 times more likely to die of maternity related causes than her counterpart in the West. The report has listed the lack of appropriate maternity care as one of the main causes resulting in death. Inadequate prenatal services leave women exposed to iron-deficiency anaemia, reproductive tract infections and other complications of pregnancy.