Yi kura ko lagi ni kalo jhanda dekham hai

Tens of millions
of pregnant women, young mothers and teenagers in the developing world
will be given access to free healthcare for the first time under plans
to be launched by Britain this month.

As ministers admit that international goals to tackle maternal and
child mortality are "significantly off track", Gordon Brown is
preparing to lead a push at the UN to scrap health charges in countries
from Nepal to Sierra Leone.

The plans come amid warnings from aid groups that half a million
women die needlessly during childbirth or pregnancy in the developing
world each year.

Barbara Stocking, the chief executive of Oxfam, described the deaths
as "deplorable", saying that they could be avoided through relatively
small investments.

Douglas Alexander, the international development secretary, says progress on the millennium development goals
on maternal and child mortality is "significantly off track". The goals
– to reduce mortality by 75% – are meant to be met by 2015.

In a Guardian interview, Alexander said that he and Brown will lead
a renewed push at the UN general assembly in New York later this month
to scrap health 'user fees'.

Alexander has negotiated deals with a group of African leaders and
the World Bank. As a result, free healthcare will be introduced or
extended in Nepal – where a newborn baby dies every 20 minutes –
Burundi, Sierra Leone and Malawi.