The Human Rights Framing of Maternal Health: A Strategy for Politicization or a Path to Genuine Empowerment?

In light of New Delhi High Court's recent declaration (during 2000) of maternal mortality a human rights issue (in a public interest litigation case), this paper seeks to deconstruct this verdict in the broader context of global discourse surrounding the framing of maternal health as a human right. The paper questions whether the two rights formulation i.e. the right to maternal health and the right to maternal survival are synonymous and if not, then how do these conceptualizations weigh in on the implicit and explicit entitlements that follow. Second, the paper explores the practical and policy dimensions that must complement such human rights framing to adequately tackle the complex problem of preventable maternal deaths. The available evidence on the state of maternal health in India (as elsewhere) indicates that the issue rests at the intersection of complex political, social, economic, and cultural factors. Inequitable access to health care, social inequality and gender inequality are at the core of the problem and tackling the latter requires innovative policy making. The paper concludes that human rights framing may help politicize the issue and offer it a more important place on the public (and political) agenda, but it may not automatically yield groundbreaking policy solutions necessary to sufficiently address the main problem.