After containing infant mortality India makes good progress in tackling maternal mortality
India has registered significant improvement in Maternal Mortality Ratio.
A special bulletin from the Sample Registration System released on Wednesday shows that Maternal Mortality Ratio of India has declined from 167 per 100,000 live births in 2011-2013 to 130 per 100,000 live births in 2014-2016.
The decline has been most significant in EAG States (Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh & Uttarakhand) & Assam from 246 to 188. Among the Southern States, the decline has been from 93 to 77 and in the Other States from 115 to 93.
Reduction of mortality of women is an area of concern for the Governments across the globe. The International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 had recommended reduction in maternal mortality by at least 50 percent of the 1990 levels by the year 2000 and further one half by the year 2015.
Maternal mortality is defined as the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy
WHO rates MMR as one of the indicators of Millennium Development Goals. Complications during pregnancy and childbirth are a leading cause of death and disability among women of reproductive age in developing countries. The maternal mortality ratio represents the risk associated with each pregnancy, i.e. the obstetric risk. It is also a MDG indicator.
Maternal mortality is defined as the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes.
India has been making good progress in bringing down infant mortality but maternal mortality had remained the Achilles’ Heel till a few years back. The latest results though will come as a boost for the efforts at ensuring safe delivery including a scheme to rope in private doctors on the ninth of every month to take care of pregnant mothers. The Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA) is the brainchild of prime minister Narendra Modi. In one of his popular Mann ki Baat programmes in 2016, Modi had appealed to private doctors to see pregnant women for free. Within a very short span of time PMSMA was launched.
India also eliminated in 2015 maternal and neonatal tetanus that had been one of the big contributors to MMR and also crib deaths across the country
 & Assam from 246 to 188. Among the Southern States, the decline has been from 93 to 77 and in the Other States from 115 to 93.){kind=link}