India registers 26.9 per cent decline in Maternal Mortality Rate since 2013

According to the Sample Registration System Bulletin-2016, India has registered a 26.9 per cent reduction in Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) since 2013. The decline in MMR has been from 77 to 72 per 100,000 live births among southern states and in the other states, from 93 to 90, it stated.

The ratio has seen a decline from 167 in 2011-13 to 130 in 2014-16 and 122 in 2015-17, registering a 6.15 per cent reduction since the last survey figures of 2014-2016, according to the special bulletin of the Office of the Registrar General.

"It is heartening that the maternal mortality ratio has declined from 130 in 2014-2016 to 122 in 2015-17. The decline has been most significant in empowered action group (EAG) states and Assam from 188 to 175", it said.

In order to understand the maternal mortality situation in the country in a better way and to map the changes that have taken place at the regional level, the state categorisation is done by the government into three group- EAG, southern states and other state.

 The sustainable development goals target of 70 per 100,000 MMR have already been met by states like Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu while Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are within "striking distance", a senior health ministry official said.

The states under EAG are Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and Assam while Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are under southern states criteria and the "other" states categories cover the remaining states and Union territories.

Maternal death is a rare event and thus requires a large sample size to provide estimates. In order to improve the SRS sample size, the results were obtained after the practice of pooling three years' data to generate reliable estimates of maternal mortality, the bulletin stated.

The first report on maternal mortality in India (1997-2003), describing trends, causes and risk factors, was released in October 2006.

India's progress in reducing the MMR was lauded by WHO last year saying the improvement puts the country on track towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of an MMR below 70 by 2030.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.