Jayshree is already a grandmother, but she has just given birth to her eleventh child. Five of Jayshree's children have already died. But it was the desire for a son that's driven Jayshree to go through the process of childbearing again and again. Now there is a new concern. While the Infant Mortality Rate has been declining over the last thirty years, today there are disturbing reports from over half of the states in India that the trend is beginning to reverse.
Chronic malnutrition is a major factor in infant mortality.
The UN says more than half of India's children under four are malnourished. The World Bank estimates that chronic malnutrition costs India ten billion dollars a year in loss of productivity, illness and death. Low birthweight in India is mainly attributable to high rates of maternal under-nutrition. And so it goes on from one generation to the next. Doctors at the Holdsworth Memorial Hospital in Mysore and the UK Medical Research Council in Southampton are now investigating how the effects cross the generations in South India.