Maternal and Child Health in Urban India, 1992-2006: Special Focus on Migrant and Poor

This study argues that urban health issues that consider the poor and the migrants as distinct groups in the urban context need not necessarily reflect accurate trends and patterns. Another concern is whether being urban poor as well as migrant is a double disadvantage in the utilization of safe delivery care service? Public health literature has paid little attention to the trends and factors that affect maternal and child health (MCH) among the migrants and the poor in urban India. Using data from the National Family Health Survey, 1992-93, 1998-99 and 2005-06, this study grouped the household wealth and migration status into four distinct categories: poor-migrant, poor-non migrant, non poor-migrant, non poor-non migrant. The present study identifies two distinct groups in terms of MCH care utilization in urban India – one for poor-migrant and one for non poor-non migrants. While poor-migrant women and their children were most vulnerable, non poor-non migrant women and children were the highest users of safe delivery care. This study reiterates the inequality that underlies the utilization of maternal healthcare services not only by the urban poor but also by poor-migrant women, who deserve special attention.