This paper is a reflection on fifteen years of working in Uttar Pradesh (UP), India, on the issue of maternal mortality among poor rural women, from the year 2000 to 2015. The work was done through SAHAYOG, a non-profit voluntary organisation, which I helped set up in 1992 and which I led from 2002 to 2014. SAHAYOG works with the mission of promoting gender equality and women's health using human rights fr ameworks, in partnership with community-based organisations (CBOs) working in poor rural communities across different districts of UP. SAHAYOG is also part of Healthwatch Forum Uttar Pradesh (HWF), an activist network set up in 1996, in the post-ICPD (United Nations 1994) years, to focus on reproductive rights and health rights issues in UP.
