Context: Context: Recently, the Prime Minister of India has lauded the significant decline in the Maternal Mortality Ratio from 130 per lakh live births in 2014-16 to 97 per lakh live births in 2018-20. 

• At this rate, the country seems to be on course to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goal’s global target of sub-70 MMR by 2030. 

• The Prime Minister emphasised that all aspects relating to women’s empowerment remain very strong.

Key Points

• India has delivered an overall improvement in the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) to 97 deaths per one lakh live births in 2018-20 from 130 per lakh in 2014-2016, as per the Health Ministry. 

• MMR is the number of mothers who die from complications during pregnancy for every one lakh live births. The progressive reduction in the MMR over the past years points to the success of the government’s healthcare initiatives related to maternity.

• Maternal mortality in a region is a measure of the reproductive health of women in the area.

• As per the World Health Organization, maternal death is the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management.

Disparity amoung states

• While Kerala tops with an MMR of 19, Assam, MP and UP are among those with a ‘very high’ MMR of more than 130; Punjab figures in the ‘high’ MMR category (101-130); and Haryana in the ‘low’ group (71-100).

Reasons for Declining MMR

• Focus on quality and coverage of health services through public health initiatives have contributed majorly to the decline.

• Also, access to institutional care is driven by economic and social factors, along with the rural-urban divide. 

• Given that the direct causes of maternal mortality are largely preventable and treatable, these inequities reflect gaps in the health system’s responsiveness to the situation. 

• It speaks of inadequacies in the implementation of schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan that aim to strengthen antenatal care by providing assured, quality services free of cost to pregnant women. 

• Or, in the scheme of distributing iron and folic acid supplements to anaemic women that was rolled out with the goal of improving their health and, ultimately, reduce maternal deaths.

Key Suggestion

• More effort is required to ensure the detection of high-risk pregnancies, especially among women and adolescents from SC, ST, poor and rural households as they also suffer from lack of resources and information. 

• Timely intervention and follow-up need to be pushed to reduce complications that account for nearly 66% of maternal deaths during or after childbirth, such as severe bleeding, infections, high blood pressure caused by unsafe deliveries and abortions. 

• All births should be assisted by health professionals as it can make the difference between life and death for both the mother and the baby.

Some of these initiatives are:

• LaQshya,

• Poshan Abhiyan,

• Janani Suraksha Yojana,

• Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan

• Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana,

• The implementation of the Aspirational District Programme and inter-sectoral action has helped to reach the most marginalized and vulnerable population.

• Recently launched Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan Initiative (SUMAN) especially focuses on zero preventable maternal and newborn deaths.

• The continuous progress in reducing the MMR will help the country to achieve the SDG 3 target of MMR below 70 by 2030.

About Maternal Mortality

• Maternal Death: It is 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.

• Maternal Mortality Ratio(MMR): It is defined as the number of maternal deaths during a given time period per 100,000 live births during the same time period.

• SDG 3.1: The target 3.1 of Sustainable Development Goals(SDG) set by the United Nations aims at reducing the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births.

About Office of the Registrar General

• It comes under the Ministry of Home Affairs and primarily conducts the Population Census and monitors the implementation of the Registration of Births and Deaths in the country. 
• It also provides estimates on fertility and mortality using the Sample Registration System (SRS).

What is Sample Registration System (SRS)?

• It is the largest demographic sample survey in the country which provides direct estimates of maternal mortality through a nationally representative sample.