Punjab, Haryana set to miss maternal mortality target

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 24

Punjab and Haryana figure on the list of major states in the country that are set to miss the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) by three-fourths till the September 2015 global deadline for targets.

As per the commitment on MDGs made in 1990 by all UN member nations, MMR (number of maternal deaths per one lakh live births) was to be reduced by three-fourths by September 2015.

India will miss the target with the National Health Profile 2015, released yesterday, revealing that it will at best reach the MMR of 140 per one lakh live births as against the goal of 109. The health profile report also lists states (including Punjab and Haryana) that will miss the MMR global goal.

So far as India’s MMR at the start of MDGs commitments in 1990 goes, different sets of government data indicate different figures.

While the Health Ministry in the recent Global Call to Action Summit held in New Delhi said India’s MMR in 1990 was 560; the National Health Profile, which the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (a ministry body) publishes, says the national MMR was 437 in 1990.

The new report reveals India will miss the MDG target on maternal deaths by at least 31 points. In 2013, India’s MMR stood at 167.