Guwahati, Jun 19 (PTI) Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday said the state has recorded a decline in the Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) to 125 during 2020-22 from 490 in 2001-03.
Addressing a press conference here, Sarma said the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) also has significantly improved in the state.
"With the whole-hearted efforts of the government of Assam in the last 20 years, our MMR has improved to 125 in 2020-22 from 490 in 2001-03," he said.
Over the last two decades, tremendous efforts have been undertaken, especially in the last 10 years, due to which significant improvement has been observed in the reduction of maternal mortality, he said.
"Assam is no longer the highest MMR state of the country. Assam’s MMR is now better than Madhya Pradesh (159), Chhattisgarh (141), Uttar Pradesh (141) and Odisha (136) as per Sample Registration System (SRS) 2020-22," the CM said.
Talking about the IMR, Sarma said the benchmark indicator in 2005 in Assam was 68, way above the national figure of 58.
As per SRS data, "IMR of Assam improved to 36 (in 2020), 34 (in 2021) and 32 (in 2022)," the CM said.
Sarma also said the MMR figure does not include the phase when the Assam government initiated a drive against child marriage.
"Our attack on child marriage will drastically bring down the MMR, as teenage pregnancy has fallen significantly. This data will be reflected once the SRS bulletin from 2022 onwards is published," he said.
Historically, Assam recorded the highest MMR in the country till the last SRS report of 2018-20, as the maternal health conditions were poor and the medical infrastructure in the state was unable to provide necessary support to mothers, the chief minister stated.
Recently, the Registrar General of India has published special SRS bulletins on MMR in India for 2019-21 and 2020-22.
"As per SRS 2019-21, MMR of Assam came down to 167 with a 28-point drop compared to 195 in 2018-20. Assam, for the first time, moved out of the last position as Madhya Pradesh (MMR 175) came last," Sarma said.
He said the contributing factors for improvement in MMR and IMR are improvement in medical infrastructure, better health human resources, motivated and incentivised ASHA and grassroots workers, improved health service delivery and social support programmes.
"Now, we have come out of the historical backlog of high burden of MMR. It is time to move forward capitalising on all our effective strategies. We must push Assam towards one of the five best states in the country in the health sector," Sarma added.