Decomposition of Socioeconomic inequalities in Obstetric morbidity among Indian women

India accounts for 23 % of the global burden of maternal deaths. According to biomedical causes, more than 70 percent of these deaths are from direct obstetric complications. However, there exists ambiguity and variability in existing literature on magnitude of socio-economic inequality in obstetric morbidity prevalence which makes it difficult to set priorities in health policy. This study aims to assess how far self-reporting obstetric morbidity misleads in measuring socio-economic inequality in India and whether using sophisticated inequality measures such as regression based inequality decomposition will help to overcome the problem. The study has used data from NFHS-3 and employed regression based decomposition analysis. Bivariate results reveal that self-reporting obstetric morbidity from NFHS-3 data is misleading in measurement of socio-economic differentials; however decomposition analysis shows that the prevalence of obstetric complications is greater among disadvantaged groups with a negative contribution of education. Thus we can overcome the problem of measuring socio-economic inequality to some extent. But, a logical explanation of the results inferred for health policy interventions is vital, as decomposition analysis has also failed to overcome the problem of self-reporting morbidities by illiterate women.