Question : Maternal and Child Mortality Rate

Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government has made any assessment regarding the causes of maternal and infant mortality prevalent in the country, if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether the Government has noted a sharp decline in maternal and child mortality rate as per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) 2015-16;

(c) if so, the details thereof along with the reasons therefor;

(d) whether despite remarkable improvements, some States including Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Meghalaya have performed poorly in the area of MMR and IMR; and

(e) if so, the details thereof and the steps taken by the Government to improve the MMR and IMR across the country?

THE MINISTER OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
(SHRI JAGAT PRAKASH NADDA)
(a): The Registrar General of India, Sample Registration System (RGI-SRS) provides a nation-wide disaggregated data on the different causes of maternal and infant mortality at different intervals.
The major causes of maternal deaths as per RGI-SRS(2001-03) are :
• Haemorrhage: 38% occur mainly because of post-partum Haemorrhage.
• Sepsis: 11%, because of any infection during pregnancy, labor and in post-partum period.
• Abortion: 8%, because of unsafe abortions.
• Hypertensive disorders: 5%, because of High Blood pressure during pregnancy.
• Obstructed labor :5%
• Other causes: 34%- includes anaemia and various other causes.
The major causes of Infant mortality as per RGI-SRS (2010-13), are: Prematurity & low birth weight (35.9%), Pneumonia (16.9%), Birth asphyxia & birth trauma (9.9%), other non-communicable diseases (7.9%), diarrhoeal diseases (6.7%), ill-defined (4.6%), congenital anomalies (4.6%), infections (4.2%), injuries (2.1%), fever of unknown origin (1.7%), other causes (5.4%).

(b) & (c): Data on Maternal Mortality rate is not being captured under NFHS-4. However the data on infant mortality rate and Child mortality rate is captured in NFHS-4. The report of the NFHS-4 is available for 15 States/UTs currently.
The comparison of Infant Mortality Rate and Child Mortality rate and the point decline between two surveys as recorded in 15 States /UTs is provided at Annexure -1. All the States/UTs, except Tripura have shown a decline in IMR between NFHS-3 and NFHS-4.

(d): All the three states namely Bihar, M.P. and Meghalaya have shown a decline of 13, 18 and 14 points respectively in Infant mortality rate.

(e): The details of the steps taken to reduce MMR and IMR are place at Annex II.