Assessing Maternal Health Care Utilization in EAG States of India: Evidence from District Level Household and Facility Survey

Arun Yadav, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
R. B. Bhagat, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

India has been trying to improve the maternal health care services but the maternal mortality rate is still very high, especially in the Empowered Action Group states of India. This study tries to examine the variations in utilization of maternal health care services in EAG states and secondly to examine the socio-economic determinants of Maternal Health Care services at district levels and household levels in EAG states. This study uses the data from DLHS-3 and Census of India 2001. Results shows that Jharkhand stands at lowest level with 0.11 score whereas Orissa stand at highest level with 0.72 score of maternal health care index. The bivariate analysis shows that effect of MHC service utilization increases with increasing level of SEDI across the entire social group. Regression analysis shows that electricity, female literacy and non-agricultural workforce participation are highly correlated among all development indicators with MHC services in each EAG states.