Community participation for safe motherhood

How does community respond to increasing risk to mother and child? Do traditional methods of life-saving, when combined with contemporary practices in maternal health, lead to new safe practices? The intervention discussed in this study is based on a decade long association of Shramik Bharti's intervention on issues of maternal and reproductive health in Rama Bai Nagar in the district of Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. The paper first introduces the intervention and its genesis. The second part traces the development of community health workers and community mobilisation. The conclusion amalgamates expereinces from the project staff and community workers, and their perceptions of change in levels of mobilisation of the community on the whole.