The average occupancy of the hospital is 220%, meaning that at least two patients share each bed.
Rukhsaar Bano, 22, gave birth to her first child on December 16, 2019. Beauty, born a healthy 2.7 kg, spiked a fever on December 29, and the new mother took her to JK Lon hospital in Kota, 240 km south of state capital Jaipur. Beauty was two weeks old when she died a few hours later, in the hospital where she was born.
“She was a healthy baby, she lived with me, she was alright when we got her home,” said Bano, a housewife. Her husband Asim Hussain, 27, works as a diver in the Chambal river and earns Rs 270 per day. Rukhsaar Bano is sure that if she had more money, Beauty would have lived. But the family could not afford private care.
Beauty was among the 101 infants who died in JK Lon Hospital in December 2019. While these deaths in Kota dominated the headlines, infant deaths have been reported routinely in other parts of the country as well, as IndiaSpend reported on January 9. The poor quality of health infrastructure, antenatal care, maternal health and postnatal care jeopardise the lives of children, our analysis shows.
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