A Critical and Progressive Review on Maternal and Child Health Policies in India

Abstract

Background: Mothers' survival and well-being are crucial for addressing major economic, societal, and child development issues. They are also significant in and of themselves. The current mother and child health situation in India is a complex topic with both hurdles and improvement. The Government of India has the foresight to reduce maternal mortality with the help of different programmes and healthcare facilities being introduced and cautiously implemented.

Objective: The author summarised the literature on maternal and child health programmes, investing in their impact, especially the programmes initiated through national health missions and analysed the programmes.

Result: This paper discussed the programmes and their current scenario with their benefits and problems. Some programmes are near to achieving their objectives such as Jannani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), and Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram (JSSK) but not at their full potential there is still some laguna in these programmes. In this direction reviewed research papers highlighted the problems in the implementation and utilisation of the programmes and suggested further steps that should be taken to fully utilise these programmes and improve maternal and child health.

Conclusion: Maternal deaths can be reduced if proper healthcare treatments are used to prevent or break the chains of problems. Although India outperformed the global average in terms of maternal mortality reduction between 1990 and 2016, we still have a long way to go to catch up with large economies such as Brazil (44), China (27) and Japan (5).