Safe Motherhood, Public Provisioning and Health Financing in India
Reduction of maternal deaths is an important concern and is also one of the Millennium Development Goals. Most recent policies have focused on the issue of maternal mortality as an isolated issue related to infrastructure and not as a resultant of the broader socio-economic contradictions. Given this context, CBGA sought to initiate an effort to track the government commitment in addressing the safe motherhood issue through its policy prescriptions and budgetary commitments at different levels of governance. The current initiative includes analysis of Budget and fund flow processes at different levels of governance as a critical element in the advocacy efforts of civil society organisations in India; analysis of field based findings to understand the needs of women and linking those observations with the policies. Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were chosen as sample states with the understanding that the problem of maternal health is among the most severe in these states and considering that the aim of NRHM is to strengthen institutions in backward states. It assesses implementation of government institutions in the most difficult situations so that lessons can be drawn.
