Does Development Lead to Narrowing the Gap in Maternal Health Care Utilization among Social Groups? The Evidences of Haryana

Abstract

One of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) during ICPD 1994 was to improve the maternal
health targeting at reducing the maternal mortality ratio by three-quarters and improving the infant and
child mortality ratio between 1990 and 2015. India took several steps to reduce such deaths and improve
the health status through universal health plans since after its independence. Except the economic and
educational status, the social structure also plays an important role to determine the level of utilisation of
such health services. Haryana consists of about 20 percent of its population comes under different 37
class of schedules castes that has identified by the government of Haryana. Now these castes are
becoming more aware, educated and the part of mail stream and hence, it helps to narrow the gap of
health care utilisation among all these social groups. With this background, the prime objective of the
paper is to examine the level of inequalities of maternal and child health care services among social
groups women especially in SCs and Other Castes in Haryana. By using the DLHS data of third round,
Bivariate, multivariate regression model and concentration indices have been employed to analysis the
data. Concentration index and curve has been used to show the level of inequality in MCH care among
social groups. The preliminary results illustrated that there are very fewer differentiations among the
social groups regarding the utilisation of maternal health care services. The result of concentration indices
shown the gap among the Scheduled Castes and other caste group were very narrow or about to invisible.