Acknowledgments

This report was written by Aruna Kashyap, researcher for the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, based on research by the author, and Nisha Varia, acting deputy director of the Women's Rights Division. The report was edited by Nisha Varia; Marianne Mollmann, advocacy director; and Liesl Gerntholtz, director of the Women's Rights Division. Aisling Reidy, senior legal advisor, and Joseph Saunders, deputy program director, also reviewed the report. Joseph Amon, director of the Health and Human Rights Division; Bede Sheppard, Asia researcher for the Children's Rights Division; and Meenakshi Ganguly, senior researcher for the Asia Division; provided input and comments on portions of the report.

We are particularly indebted to the external reviewers who commented on an early version of the report. These include Dr. Abhijit Das, director of Center for Health and Social Justice, New Delhi; Jashodhara Dasgupta, coordinator of SAHAYOG, Lucknow; Mihir Desai, advocate and human rights activist, Mumbai; Dr. Usha Ramanathan, legal researcher and human rights activist, New Delhi; and Dr. Thelma Narayan, coordinator of the Centre for Public Health and Equity, SOCHARA, Bangalore, who provided methodological and research guidance as well as inputs. Dr. Rakhal Gaitonde and Dr. Subhasri provided research support in Tamil Nadu and reviewed draft sections pertaining to Tamil Nadu. Alicia Yamin, Global Health and Human Rights Fellow at Harvard Law School, also reviewed an early version of this report. Brian Root, statistician and research methodology expert helped analyzed the data presented in this report.

Pooja Sripad and Amy Whiffen, interns in the Women's Rights Division, provided important research support. Alex Horne, former associate in the Women's Rights Division, provided research assistance. Daniela Ramirez and Chloë Fussell,associates in the Women's Rights Division provided editing and production assistance. Anna Lopriore, creative manager, Grace Choi, publications director, and Fitzroy Hepkins, mail manager, provided production assistance.

We are very grateful to the many public health experts, local NGOs, lawyers, and others who assisted our research by sharing their ideas on the subject, in particular, Dr. Abhay Shukla, Chayanika Shah, Prof. Dileep Mavalankar, Dr. Neelam Singh, Kranti, former Registrar General of India P. Padmanabha, Sabala, Dr. Sharad Iyengar, Dr. Sundari Ravindran, and Dr. Vishwajeet Kumar. We also thank members of Saksham, Vanangana, Vatsalya, Action Aid India, CARE India, Healthwatch Forum, and the Uttar Pradesh Jan Swasthya Abhiyan.The views expressed in this report are those of Human Rights Watch and Human Rights Watch takes full responsibility for any errors or omissions.

CEHAT (Mumbai), SAHAYOG (Lucknow), and Vatsalya (Lucknow) provided research support by allowing Human Rights Watch to use their documentation center and library. Healthwatch Forum-Uttar Pradesh provided invaluable assistance with processing the applications filed under the Right to Information Act. 

Above all, we thank all families of deceased pregnant women who recounted their experiences. We also acknowledge the government officials, doctors, and health workers who agreed to be interviewed at length for this report.

We acknowledge with gratitude the financial support of Arcadia and the other donors who have supported the work of the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch.