Socio-Economic Differentials and the Factors Affecting Utilization of Maternal and Child Health Care Services in India: A Case Study of Uttarakhand State

The present paper is an attempt to study the utilization of maternal and child health care services in rural areas in the newly formed state of Uttarakhand in India. The data have been analysed from National Family Health Survey-III (NFHS-3). The findings reveal that the utilization of maternal and child care services is not uniform in the state of Uttarakhand. In rural areas of Uttarakhand only 10.5 percent of women received full antenatal care in compare to 33.3 percent of urban women. Only 26.4 percent of births were delivered in a health facility and 31.8 percent of births were assisted by a health professional. In rural areas of Uttarakhand only 28.7 percent of mothers received postnatal check-up. Thus the state has witnessed a higher proportion of high risk pregnancies. After controlling the demographic and socio-economic factors we find that the factors related with the women are the most important predictor in explaining the use of maternal health care services. Women’s age at birth, birth order and education level of the mother found to be the most important predictors for explaining the utilization of maternal and child health care services.