Maternal mortality in India, a state wise analysis

Suresh Kumar, University of Kerala
Rajesh J Nair, University of Kerala

Maternal mortality is a useful indicator, not only to capture the reproductive health status of women, but also to get an idea of the reach and adequacy of maternal health services provided to women under the national programme. There is considerable difference in the levels of maternal mortality between high income and low income countries, and between the rich and the poor within countries. In India, there is a large differential in the level of maternal mortality across the states. However, maternal mortality has declined substantially during the recent period in almost all states as well as in the country as a whole. Objective of the present study is to analyse the maternal mortality in India and its states against different socio-economic characteristics of the population. Two states of India namely Uttar Pradesh, which has the highest maternal mortality ratio and Kerala, having lowest maternal mortality ratio were selected for the indepth analysis. Data used for the analysis is taken from SRS reports of India, DLHS and NFHS. One way, two-way classifications and multi-variate analysis were done for the study. A large regional variations in maternal mortality across the country was noted with the eastern and central regions recording the highest rate and the southern, northern and north eastern regions had the lowest rate of maternal mortality. The variables like education, religion, caste, standard of living and antenatal care were found to have significant role in determining maternal mortality.