Fighting India’s infant mortality rates

India has the highest mortality rate for newborn babies in the world, in part as a result of an ingrained suspicion of hospitals and doctors.

Some communities are working to change that by training their own ‘Ashas’, or carers.

The women are advised on how to convince pregnant women from rural areas that a hospital birth is safer when labour begins, and are also given basic midwife and first aid training.

Al Jazeera’s Sohail Rahman reports from Merwat in Haryana State.