INTEGRATED MAINS AND PRELIMS MENTORSHIP (IMPM) 2025 Daily KEY
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Maternal Mortality ratio (MMR) and Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and its significance for the UPSC Exam? Why are topics like India-China, Quantum Computer , Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) important for both preliminary and main exams? Discover more insights in the UPSC Exam Notes for September 09, 2025 |
For Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international Significance
For Mains Examination: GS III - Economy
Context:
Kerala’s maternal mortality ratio (MMR) has “risen” steeply from 18 to 30 per one lakh live births, shows the latest Sample Registration System special bulletin of 2021-2023.
Read about:
Maternal mortality ratio (MMR)
Infant mortality ratio (IMR)
Key takeaways:
- The Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) is a key public health indicator that measures the number of women who die during pregnancy, childbirth, or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, per 100,000 live births in a given year.
- It reflects not just the health status of women but also the overall effectiveness of a country’s healthcare system, especially maternal and reproductive healthcare services.
- A high MMR indicates poor access to quality healthcare, inadequate medical infrastructure, lack of skilled birth attendants, and wider socio-economic issues like malnutrition, poverty, and lack of education.
- For example, if in a country 200 women die due to pregnancy-related causes while giving birth to 100,000 live babies in a year, then its MMR = 200.
- Globally, reducing MMR has been a major goal under the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to bring it down to less than 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030.
- India too has made significant progress—its MMR declined from 556 (1990) to around 97 (2020, Sample Registration System data), reflecting improvements in institutional deliveries, access to antenatal care, and government schemes like Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) and Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA).
👉 In short:
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MMR = maternal deaths / 100,000 live births.
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It is both a health and development indicator.
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Lowering MMR is critical for women’s rights, social justice, and meeting SDG targets
Kerala Scenario
- According to the latest Sample Registration System (SRS) special bulletin for 2021–2023, Kerala’s maternal mortality ratio (MMR) has shown a sharp increase, rising from 18 to 30 per one lakh live births. Despite this rise, Kerala, along with Andhra Pradesh, continues to rank at the top among Indian States with the lowest MMR.
- Health officials point out that the surge is largely attributable to the 97 maternal deaths reported in 2021 due to COVID-19. They also highlight that Kerala’s steadily shrinking number of live births is now impacting its MMR figures.
- Since the ratio is derived by dividing maternal deaths by live births and multiplying by one lakh, a reduction in the denominator inflates the overall figure.
- The fall in live births has been a persistent theme in policy debates in Kerala. The State, which once recorded between 5 and 5.5 lakh births annually, has now fallen below 4 lakh. In 2023, official statistics reported 3,93,231 live births, and projections suggest this could drop further to around 3.54 lakh between April 2024 and March 2025.
- In contrast to t