Utilization Of Maternal And Child Health Services In State Of Jharkhand, India: Role Of Socio-Economic And Regional Correlates

Despite being a signatory to Millennium Declaration which also aims to improve maternal and child health care, India’s performance remains unacceptably poor with large regional disparities. The wretched state of maternal and child health conditions in Jharkhand are blighting India’s hard earned efforts to combat high maternal and child death rate on global platform. This study aims to explore linkages of poor maternal and child health conditions from a regional perspective along with other socio-economic dimensions. Findings of the paper show that Dhanbad, Bokaro, Hazaribagh, East Singhbhum and Ranchi districts bask high utilization of maternal and child health care services compared to Pakur, Godda, Shahibganj, Giridhih, West Singhbhum districts which have high rural poverty and concentration of scheduled caste and tribe population. Logistic regression analysis highlights region, wealth, religion, caste, education as important covariates of full antenatal care, safe delivery, contraceptive use and child immunization.