India will miss MDG target on maternal mortality: Govt report

India will miss its Millenium Development Goal (MDG) target of reducing maternal mortality rate to 109 per 1,00,000 live births, according to National Health Profile-2015, which was released by Health Minister J P Nadda today.
National Health Profile-2015, published by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI), said India will miss the MDG target on maternal mortality by 31 points.
"From an estimated MMR (maternal mortality rate) level of 437 per 1,00,000 live births in 1990, India is required to reduce MMR to 109 per 1,00,000 births by 2015. At the historical pace of decrease, India tends to reach MMR of 140 per 1,00,000 live births by 2015, falling short by 31 points," the report said.

It further said that in India, infant mortality rate (IMR) has reduced by nearly 50 per cent during 1990-2012 and the present level is at 42.
"As per the historical trend, the IMR is likely to reach 40 deaths per 1,000 live births, missing the MDG target of 27 with a considerable margin. However, ...IMR is declining at a sharper rate in the recent years...," it said.
The report further said that Under Five Mortality Rate (U5MR) has declined from an estimated level of 125 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 52 in 2012. Given to reduce U5MR to 42 per 1,000 live births by 2015, India tends to reach 49 by 2015 as per the historical trend, missing the target by seven percentage points.

"However, considering the continuance of the sharper annual rate of decline witnessed in the recent years, India is likely to achieve the target," the executive summary of the report said.
The MDGs which include eight goals were framed to address the world's major development challenges with health and its related areas prime focus.
In India, "considerable" progress has been made in the field of basic universal education, gender equality in education, global economic growth and indicators related to health, the report said.