Inequality in reproductive health status of women: Block level study of Paschim Medinipur district, West Bengal, India

Pages: 482-489
Meghna Maiti and Utpal Roy (Department of Geography, University of Calcutta, Kolkata)

Since independence, Government of India (GOI) introduced lots of programmes to improve the health condition of childbearing mothers and reduce maternal mortality. For addressing the issues associated with maternal health, safe motherhood and fertility regulation interventions, Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) Programme has been implemented at the national, state as well as district level and below of it. In spite of functioning of RCH programme, women’s health specially reproductive health standard is far from satisfactory level and the disparity among states are still prominent and it varies from excellent to poor. Different analysis reveals that the state-level effects of various RCH services are significantly higher than the district level. But the unit below district level might always present the functioning and performance of RCH at regional in this regard. This attempt is an initiative to assess the variation in reproductive health status of women among blocks of Paschim Medinipur district, West Bengal. As reproductive health depicts the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth, preconception, prenatal and post natal care, but for the sake of this study, specific attention is given to a number of prenatal and natal aspects due to some limitations in data. Results of different applied measures identify the range of differentials between blocks that can be effective to reduce the disparity level in planning formulation and implementation for the poorly performed blocks in future.