UP behind India's remarkable improvement in maternal mortality

LUCKNOW: Making a big leap towards improving maternal health, India recorded a decline of 82 points in its maternal mortality ratio according to the Special Maternal Mortality Bulletin released by Census department on Wednesday.

Evaluating maternal mortality indicators for two year period 2014-16, the demographers found that India's MMR stood at 130. The same assessment for 2007-09 period had pegged the MMR to 212. Uttar Pradesh was the biggest contributor to the decline. Against an MMR of 359 in 2007-09, UP's MMR was found to be 201 in 2014-16 which is a drop of 158 points that is also maximum improvement in the country.

Maternal mortality or number of women dying during childbirth is a crucial development indicator. As per WHO, maternal death refers to 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.

Measured in terms of number of women dying during child birth per one lakh live births, MMR reflects on any country's human development index. While the MMR in developed countries like United States of America and United Kingdom is below 15, it is as high as 781 in sub-Saharan country of South Sudan.

Assam followed UP with a dip of 153 points but the state's MMR remains highest in the country. As on date, Assam's MMR is 237 while it was 390 in 2007-09 period. Meanwhile, Kerela continued to account for lowest MMR in the country even as it recorded a decline of 20 points. Against a rate of 81 in 2007-09, Kerela's recorded an MMR of 46 in the current assessment.

On a national scale, southern states continued to beat northern counterparts. While the average MMR for southern states (Andra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerela) stood at 77 which was way below the national average of 130, states of Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and Odisha recorded an average MMR of 188.

Health officials point out that 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.