Access to maternal health care services and socioeconomic disparities in pre and post nrhm period in India: Evidence from national sample survey

National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was launched in April, 2005 with a focus to provide accessible, affordable and quality health care to the rural population. Maternal and child health received a major thrust. This paper attempts to assess whether in the post NRHM period the utilisation of maternal care facilities has improved. It also aims to examine the factors associated with the utilisation of maternal care services, both public and private.

NSS 60^th round (2004) and NSS 71^st round (2014) unit level dataset have been used for the study. 2004 and 2014 have been chosen as pre and post NRHM period respectively. Cross tabulation, correlation analysis and bivariate LOGIT regression involving selected variables have been done using STATA.

The study found that the utilisation of maternal care services has increased over the decade. The study also identifies difference in the utilisation of the public and private services across places of residence (rural/urban), educational levels of the mother, social group, age and income.

A cent percent institutional delivery should be ensured to reduce the risk of pregnancy and delivery related mortality and morbidity for both of the mother and child. More investment in this area is needed to penetrate the grass root level problems, both in the rural and urban areas. Higher investment ensuring improved infrastructure along with better outreach is likely to pave the way for achieving the goal of cent percent institutional child birth particularly in the rural area. JEL classification: I14, I18