The Assam Pradesh Mahila Congress has slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in the State for failing to check crimes against women.
The women’s wing also panned the Assam government for high maternal and infant mortality rates despite claiming to have ramped up the healthcare infrastructure.
The criticism followed the publication of the NITI Aayog’s Sustainable Development Goals India Index 2020-21, which marked Assam and a few other north-eastern States as poor performers.
“It was once announced Assam would become one of the early States, if not the first in the country, to work towards achieving sustainable development goals by 2030. But the NITI Aayog’s report on SDG performance has accentuated the fake and false promises, particularly in the field of protecting, educating and improving the health of girls and women,” State Mahila Congress president Nandita Das said.
She pointed out that the number of crimes against women increased from 4,46,116 during the 15-year tenure of Tarun Gogoi to 5,97,095 during the five years of the BJP-led alliance government under Sarbananda Sonowal.
“Assam’s maternal mortality rate is 215 per one lakh compared to 43 in Kerala. Similarly, the infant mortality rate in Assam is 47 per 1,000 children compared to 10 in Kerala,” Ms. Das said.
Total physicians, nurses, and midwives per 10,000 population are only 23 in Assam while it is 115 in Kerela, she added.
