State of Reproductive Health in Urban Slums in Odisha

High density of specialized health facilities hardly ensures service access to urban poor. Economic growth while important to help improve the health status of the urban poor does not necessarily solve the problem of reproductive health. In absence of social policies, equity and equality, the benefits are hardly reached to the urban poor. Hence, with the objective to assess the reproductive health condition in urban slums in Odisha, India the study findings of latest Annual Health Survey were reanalyzed. The findings of the reanalysis are currently married women aged 20-24 years married before legal age (18 years) was 27.3%. The birth orders two and above was found 33.9%. The unmet need for limiting was almost 13.4%. Mothers who had full ANC were only 28.9%. Most important the intake of IFA tablet was found 31.3% mothers. The institutional delivery was 56.0 %. The vital indicators like female IMR, U5MR and MMR were 48, 59 and 277 respectively. The recommendations suggested are health planning should be a part of city/town planning, strengthening and putting health equity higher on the agenda, need of improved access to maternal health services, referral, community participation, motivation of service care providers and corporate partnership, etc.