Factors Governing Maternal Health Care Utilization in India: A Cross Cultural Comparison

Harish C. Srivastava, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Arindam Das, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

In India women's reproductive health problems is a matter of concern. High proportion of women in the reproductive age suffers from complications during pregnancy and childbirth. This phenomenon has been found varying among the states, because of differences in their socio-cultural, demographic and infrastructural differentials. The paper therefore aims to examine some factors governing the maternal healthcare utilization in the selected states. The data has been drawn from the Reproductive and Child Health Survey (RCH-2) of India 1998-99. Analysis is restricted to four states- Punjab (northern), Orissa (eastern), Gujarat (western) and TamilNadu (southern). Inter and intra state variations were found according to different socio-economic characteristics. Women with delivery complications are aware of the risks involved and hence keen to seek institutional care. The logistic regression technique has been used to estimate the net effect of various socio-economic and demographic variables on the likelihood of utilizing the maternal healthcare