Trends of Economic Inequalities in RCH Services Utilization in India

Globally estimates of maternal mortality indicate that more than half a million women died due to pregnancy related causes and these deaths are unjust and can be avoided with key health interventions, like provision of antenatal care and medically assisted delivery. The prime objective of book is to examine the trend of economic inequalities in utilization of RCH services in India and to quantify the contribution of selected factors explaining the rural-urban gap in use of RCH care utilization by using the NFHS-1,2,3 data. To fulfill the aforesaid objectives concentration index and non-linear decomposition technique have been used. The study reveals a sluggish increase in the utilization of RCH services in India with respect of place of residence. The trends of economic inequalities in utilization of RCH services are decreasing in both urban and rural areas but the pace of declining is more in rural areas than urban areas during the study period. Decomposition results indicates that economic status of the household is the main contributor in urban-rural differential in receiving the reproductive and child health care services followed by mother education level and media exposure.