Lok Sabha Question No. 4744 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-28
Subject: Health Services for Women
Ministry: HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
Asked by: Shri Sanatan Pandey

## GOVERNMENT OFINDIA MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE DEPARTMENT OFHEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4744 TO BE ANSWERED ON 28 th MARCH, 2025

## HEALTH SERVICES FOR WOMEN

## †4744. SHRI SANATAN PANDEY:

Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has made any improvements in the health services for women;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) the details of impact of these reforms on women;
- (d) whether these reforms have reduced health problems of women; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof ?

## ANSWER THE MINISTER OFSTATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE

## (SHRI PRATAPRAO JADHAV)

(a) to (e): Under National Health Mission (NHM), the Government has taken many steps towards universal health coverage by supporting the State Government in providing accessible & affordable healthcare to all including women.

To provide quality health care services especially for the under served and marginalized groups in rural and undeserved areas, various initiatives carried out under NHM by the Government of India in the country for all including women are operationalisation of Ayushman Arogya Mandir, National Ambulance Services, Mobile Medical Units, ASHAs, 24 x 7 Services and First Referral Facilities, Prime Minister's National Dialysis Programme, various activities under Reproductive & Child Health, Anaemia Mukt Bharat (AMB) strategy, Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan (PMTBMBA) and Universal Immunization programme.

Apart from above mentioned schemes, Government has also implemented following schemes especially for pregnant women:

- Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (SUMAN) provides assured, dignified, respectful and quality healthcare at no cost and zero tolerance for denial of services for every woman and newborn visiting public health facilities to end all preventable maternal and newborn deaths.
- Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) , a demand promotion and conditional cash transfer scheme for promoting institutional delivery.
- Under Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram (JSSK), every pregnant woman is entitled to free delivery, including caesarean section, in public health institutions along with the provision of free transport, diagnostics, medicines, blood, other consumables & diet.
- Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA) provides pregnant women a fixed day, free of cost assured and quality antenatal check up by a Specialist/Medical Officer on the 9th day of every month.
- LaQshya improves the quality of care in labour room and maternity operation theatres to ensure that pregnant women receive respectful and quality care during delivery and immediate post-partum.
- Functionalization of First Referral Units (FRUs) by ensuring manpower, blood storage units, referral linkages to improve the access to quality of care for pregnant women
- Outreach camps are provisioned for improving the reach of health care services especially in tribal and hard to reach areas. This platform is used to increase the awareness for the Maternal & Child health services, community mobilization as well as to track high risk pregnancies.
- One of the key focus areas of Maternal Health is to generate demand through Information Education & Communication (IEC) , Inter-personal Communication (IPC) and Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) activities.

As per the Special Bulletin on Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR), released by the Registrar General of India (RGI), India has seen a significant decline of 157 points in MMR from 254 in 2004-06 to 97 per lakh live births in 2018-20. Improvement in various other Key Maternal Health Indicators as per National Family Health Survey (NFHS) is as follows:

| Indicator                                                                                   | NFHS-3 (2005-06)   | NFHS-5 (2019-21)   |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------|--------------------|
| Antenatal check-up in the 1 st trimester                                                    | 43.9%              | 70.0%              |
| Four Antenatal care visits                                                                  | 37%                | 58.5%              |
| Institutional deliveries                                                                    | 38.7%              | 88.6%              |
| Births attended by skilled health personnel (doctor/ nurse/LHV/ ANM/other health personnel) | 46.6%              | 89.4%              |

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