Bulletin On Maternal Mortality Ratio:
The Registrar General of India released a special bulletin on Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR). It revealed that India achieved a significant milestone by reaching the National health policy (NHP) target for MMR.
- The maternal mortality ratio (MMR) is the number of maternal deaths during a specific time period per 100,000 live births during the same period.
- It is a tool used to indicate the risk of maternal death relative to the number of live births, capturing the risk of death in a single pregnancy or a single live birth.
- India’s MMR fell from 130 per 100,000 live births in 2014-16 to 97 per lakh live births in 2018-20.
- In 2014-2016, the MMR was 130, it was 122 in 2015-17, 113 in 2016-18, 103 in 2017-18 and 97 in 2018-20.
- With the 2018-20 MMR, India achieved the National Health Policy (NHP) target for MMR of less than 100 per 100,000 live births.
- It is currently on track to achieve the SDG Target 3.1, which aims to reduce global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 1 lakh live births.
- Assam currently has the highest MMR of 195, followed by Madhya Pradesh with an MMR of 173 and Uttar Pradesh with MMR of 167 per 1 lakh live births.
- Other states with high MMR are Chhattisgarh (137), Odisha (119), Bihar (118), Rajasthan (113), Haryana (110), Punjab (105) and West Bengal (105).
- Many of these states belong to the Empowered Action Group (EAG) – a group of socio-economically poor regions.
- Kerala had the lowest MMR of 19 per 100,000 live births.
- It is followed by Maharashtra (33) and Telangana (43), Andhra Pradesh (45) and Gujarat (57).
