Improvement in the Status of Maternal Health in India

In order to access the status of the Maternal Health and its improvement, Indicators chosen are:

1. Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR)

2. Percentage of births covered by skilled birth attendants

3. Life expectancy of women as a ratio of life expectancy of men

4. Age specific fertility rates of 15 to 24 years girls

The Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) is the number of women who die from any cause related to or aggravated by pregnancy or its management (excluding accidental or incidental causes) during pregnancy and childbirth or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, per 100,000 live births. The incidence of maternal deaths is too rare an event to provide a robust estimate of the MMR by sample survey method. The present estimates are available from Sample Registration System (SRS) based studies taking into account the requirement of large sample size for sub-national estimates of MMR.

The national MMR level has come down from 327 per 100,000 live births in 1999-2001 to 212 per 100,000 live births in 2007-09, registering a decline of 35.2% over a span of eight years. As the MMR for the intervening period were observed as 301 in 2001-03 and 254 in 2004-06,  the direction of the fall through out in MMR shows very healthy sign of development in the Maternal Health of Indian women over the years.

Life risk in motherhood is gradually diminishing across the country mainly due to promotion of reproductive healthcare facilities through government-run programmes. From 35% deliveries attended by skilled personnel in 1992-93, the proportion has increased to about 49% in 2005-06 and 52% by 2007-08. At this rate of change, India is likely to attain 62% delivery attendance by skilled personnel by 2015.

The slow progress in skilled attendance to deliveries is mainly due to poor progress in institutional deliveries. At the all India level, the coverage of institutional deliveries increased rather slowly: from 26.1% in 1992-93 (NFHS -1) to 33.6% in 1998-99 (NFHS -2) and then to 41% in 2005-06 (NFHS -3) and 47% in 2007-08 (DLHS – 3).  Off late the Government Janani Sureksha Yojana has shown a good progress in this direction in many of the under developed EAG States as revealed through Annual Health Survey (2010-11).  This scheme/yojana will definitely have impact at the All-Level and next All-India level surveys would reveal the same.

Life expectancy in India shows a continuous increasing trend. From 60.3 years in 1991-95, it has gone up to 63.4 years in 2002-06. The life expectance of women in India is more than that for men. This reversal happened during early 1980’s in India.  It was 60.9 years in 1991-95 for women compared with 59.7 years for men and rose to 64.2 years in 2002-06 for women as against 62.6 years for men in the same year.  This is quite indicative of the healthy signs of maternal health in India.

The Age-Specific Fertility Rate (ASFR) in India shows a declining trend across different age-groups. The ASFR for the women in the age-group 15-19 years was 51.1 in 2000 which has come down to 30.7 in 2011. Similarly, ASFR for the women in the age-group 20-24 years was 218.7 in 2000 which has come down to 196.7 in 2011.  This too indicates the healthy directional change in maternal health status in India.