High rates of infant mortality and maternal mortality are the result of which factors?

Poverty and illiteracy

The correct answer is Option (2) → Poverty and illiteracy

High rates of infant mortality and maternal mortality are mainly caused by poverty and illiteracy. Poverty leads to poor nutrition, lack of proper healthcare facilities, and inadequate medical treatment, while illiteracy results in lack of awareness about health, hygiene, nutrition, and medical care during pregnancy and childbirth. Therefore, both factors significantly contribute to high infant and maternal mortality rates.

• Option 1 & Option 4 (Development): Economic and social "development" generally leads to better infrastructure, advanced healthcare facilities, and higher standards of living, which actually reduce infant and maternal mortality rates rather than causing them.

• Option 3 (Life expectancy): Life expectancy is an outcome indicator of a healthy population. High infant and maternal mortality rates cause life expectancy to drop; it is not a causative factor behind those deaths. 

NCERT: The infant mortality rate is the number of deaths of babies before the age of one year per 1000 live births. Likewise, the maternal mortality rate is the number of women who die in childbirth per 1,00,000 live births. High rates of infant and maternal mortality are an unambiguous indicator of backwardness and poverty; development is accompanied by sharp falls in these rates as medical facilities and levels of education, awareness and prosperity increase.