Child health

Although there are multiple vulnerabilities that may prevent access to maternal and child health services in India, the literature has so far focused on unidimensional vulnerabilities—typically, economic or social vulnerabilities. The linkages between multiple vulnerabilities and the utilisation of MCH services are investigated using data from National Family Health Survey-4 (2015–16) for Uttar Pradesh to analyse whether women received full antenatal care, institutional delivery care, postnatal care, and full immunisation for their children. Bivariate analysis and binomial logistic regression analysis are employed to examine the multiple vulnerabilities that service utilisation across three dimensions—education, wealth, and caste. Women with multiple vulnerabilities are less likely to utilise essential MCH services.

The ministry of health and family welfare in 1995 initiated the Reproductive and Child Health Policy which claims to be a 'gender-sensitive' policy. The present article deconstructs the notion of gender sensitivity by unpacking the ideological assumptions that underlie the text of the policy. It examines, through a qualitative analysis of documents and interviews with policy-makers, how the state positions women within its discourses of development, health and gender. Further, it also explores the implications of such positioning for women's emancipation.