Long way to go in curbing mortality rates: Azad

Addressing the 54th All India Congress of Obstetrics and Gynaecology which began here, he said the need of the hour is to prioritise available resources into health facilities which need them the most and institute effective mechanisms for regular monitoring quality of services and sought the help of medical professionals like gynaecologists.

He said of the about 28 million pregnancies in India, an estimated 56,000 maternal deaths take place every year.

"Our task is more challenging due to the regional disparities that exist in the country with the states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Odisha and Assam contributing to more than two-thirds of the MMR burden," he said.

Azad said both urban and rural India have long pending and ever increasing demands for provision of healthcare services.

The current MMR as per the latest Sample Registration Survey is 212 per 1,00,000 live-births and the IMR is 44 per 1,000 live births.

The Minister listed out various scheme initiated by the government and said data pertaining to more than 3.5 crore women and 2.7 crore children has been recorded under Mother and Child Tracking System (MCTS).