India Achieves National Health Policy Target For Maternal And Child Mortality Reduction

Komal Bajpai

Author

Updated: 16-04-2025 at 12:50 PM

India reached the MMR target of the National Health Policy with the reduction of Maternal Mortality Ratio to 100 deaths per 100,000 live births. This milestone showcases India's persistent efforts in maternal and child healthcare. The country achieved even greater success by lowering both the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Under-Five Mortality Rate (U5MR) beyond global improvement rates while reducing MMR. India makes dedicated efforts to support Sustainable Development Goals and improve medical service availability.

India’s Progress In Maternal And Child Healthcare

Indicator	India’s Achievement	Global Decline for Comparison
Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR)	83% reduction (1990-2020)	38% decline (2000-2020)
Infant Mortality Rate (IMR)	69% reduction (1990-2020)	55% decline (1990-2020)
Under-five Mortality Rate (U5MR)	75% decline (1990-2020)	58% global decline
Total Fertility Rate (TFR)	Reduced from 3.4 (1992) to 2.0 (2021)	N/A

The health system upgrades combined with specific policy directions and government healthcare programmes help India achieve faster decreases in maternal and child death rates.

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Key Drivers Behind India’s Healthcare Progress

The government of India creates strategies that work with better healthcare services to teach people about important health topics. The success in decreasing maternal and infant deaths plus better health control systems with financial assistance helped India achieve these results. These represent the main elements driving India’s healthcare achievements.

1. Declining Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR)

Between 1990 and 2020 India decreased its MMR rate by 83% which substantially exceeded the global improvement rate.
The reduction in maternal mortality was enabled through enhanced maternal care services along with increased institutional birth rates and proper nutritional programs.
States leading MMR decline include Kerala together with Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra which achieved better healthcare availability.

2. Infant Snd Under-Five Mortality Reduction

The infant death rate in India decreased by 69% as the under-five mortality rate dropped by 75% throughout the period from 1990 to 2020.
Foreign demographic data demonstrates that India's decline in these rates exceeded global averages due to the country's successful national programs including Mission Indradhanush and Poshan Abhiyaan together with Janani Suraksha Yojana.
Nearly eleven states in India have reached the Sustainable Development Goal standards for child mortality based on data from the Sample Registration System (SRS) 2020.

3. Fertility Rate And Family Planning Success

The success of family planning programs in India led to a decrease in Total Fertility Rate (TFR) from 3.4 in 1992-93 down to 2.0 in 2019-21.
Thirty-one states together with union territories have reached the replacement fertility level thus enabling population stabilization.

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Government Initiatives Driving Healthcare Improvements

Through key health programmes, the Indian government made maternal and child healthcare better by making it simpler to use affordable and high-quality. These healthcare programmes have helped decrease death rates and brought better health results to the system.

1. National Health Mission (NHM)

The National Health Mission has established important healthcare service growth, particularly in remote areas of India.
Since 2006-07 the National Health Mission has expanded its health infrastructure and professional workforce from 23,000 staff members to reach 523,000 employees in 2023-24.

2. Financial Protection And Out-Of-Pocket Expenditure Reduction

Since 2004-05 government healthcare spending has increased from 22.5% to 48% during 2021-22 and it has decreased out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) from 69.4% to 39.4%.
The change in healthcare funding approach has expanded the delivery of basic medical services to disadvantaged communities.

3. Strengthening Maternal And Child Health Policies

The Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) program together with the LaQshya Programme have both substantially improved healthcare services for mothers.
The child healthcare sector received substantial support through Mission Indradhanush vaccination drives by achieving above 90% immunization coverage in multiple states.

Also Read: India's National Family Planning Program: Simplified Overview

Future Roadmap: What Lies Ahead?

The government maintains its aim to decrease baby fatalities by strengthening its medical services network.

1. Achieving Global Healthcare Benchmarks

India wants to decrease maternal mortality rates to less than 70 fatalities per 100,000 live births to accomplish the WHO SDG target for 2030.
Indian authorities are increasing their programmes to lower the infant mortality rate to under 15 per 1,000 live births by 2025.

2. Strengthening Rural Healthcare Infrastructure

Developing medical care centres is our top ongoing project.
Training in health care will receive bigger support combined with efforts to make child and maternal health services available to everyone.

3. Technological Integration In Healthcare

Digital health systems such as ABDM will help doctors monitor patient health better and make healthcare services work more efficiently.
Telehealth and mobile health (mHealth) programmes will create better healthcare access between rural and urban areas.

Conclusion

India shows a strong dedication to public health through its unexpected progress in cutting maternal and child deaths. National health programmes together with larger budgets and vaccination programmes led to these positive improvements in health outcomes across India. India must maintain both healthcare policy stability and expand rural medical services to reach global healthcare targets. Other developing economies use India’s accomplishment as an example to enhance their maternal and child healthcare systems.

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