Researchers from the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Deonar have mapped India’s maternal deaths to district-level precision and found that 70% of the 640 districts are ‘hot-spots’ reporting higher pregnancy-related deaths than the UN development goals. The paper published in PLOS Global Public Health reported 61.98 million live births and 61,169 maternal deaths, between 2017 and 2020.

According to the U.N, the Maternal Mortality rate (MMR) is defined as deaths due to complications from childbirth or pregnancy per 1 lakh life births. The MMR under the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is 70 for 2030. The study found that Arunachal Pradesh has the country’s highest MMR of 284, while Maharashtra reported the lowest MMR of 40. 

The study also revealed that five states had MMR greater than or equal to 210, while 8 states and 3 Union territories reported MMR in the range of 140-209. Similarly, another eleven states reported an MMR in the range of 70-139. Dr. Srinivas Goli stated that the most startling finding of the study was that progressive Punjab had a high MMR number that can be attributed to unsafe sex-selective abortions leading to the death of women. In India, MMR is tracked by the sample registration system (SRS) of the office of the Registrar General of India, but the data only covers the major states and provides no district-level numbers. Dr. Goli added that districts are critical administrative units for micro-level policy and monitoring. 

(Source: https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/70-of-districts-fail-to-meet-un-maternal-deaths-goal-study/92992720 )