In news– The special bulletin on India’s maternal mortality ratio (MMR) has been released by the Registrar General of India on March 14, 2022.
Key findings-
- According to the special bulletin, India’s MMR has improved to 103 in 2017-19, from 113 in 2016-18 bringing it closer to the global sustainable development goal of bringing down MMR to 70.
- With persistent decline over the years, India is “on the verge” of achieving the National Health Policy MMR target of 100.
- The states with the highest MMR are Assam (205), Uttar Pradesh (167), Madhya Pradesh (163), Chhattisgarh (160), and Rajasthan (141).
- ‘Very high’ MMR means 130 or more maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.
- The states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar have seen the most drop in MMR. West Bengal, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh have recorded an increase in MMR over the last survey.
- Seven states have already achieved the sustainable development goal target — Kerala (30), Maharashtra (38), Telangana (56), Tamil Nadu (58), Andhra Pradesh (58), Jharkhand (61), and Gujarat (70),
- In addition to the seven states, Karnataka (83) and Haryana (96) have achieved the National Health Policy target set by India.
- As per the report, the highest proportion of maternal deaths happened in women between the ages of 20 and 24 accounting for 32% of the total deaths, followed by those between the ages of 25 and 29 accounting for 31% of the total deaths.
- MMR is defined as the number of maternal deaths during a given time period per 100,000 live births during the same time period.
- Sustainable Development Goals (target 3.1) says the global maternal mortality ratio should be less than 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030.
- The MMR is represented in a three-year format because, maternal deaths being a rare event require prohibitively large sample size to provide robust estimates.
About Registrar General of India (RGI)-
- It comes under the Union Home Ministry.
- The Ministry constituted it for arranging, conducting and analyzing the results of the demographic surveys of India including Census of India and Linguistic Survey of India.
- The position of Registrar is usually held by a civil servant holding the rank of Joint Secretary.
- RGI coordinates and unifies the registration activities across the country while the Chief Registrars of Births and Deaths in the States are the chief executive authorities in the respective States for executing the provisions of the Act and the Rules and Orders made thereunder.
Further reading: https://journalsofindia.com/registrar-general-and-census-commissioner-of-india/
Source: Down to Earth
