Abstract

Since 2005, India has been relying on National Rural Health Mission—a flagship program under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to reduce country’s high maternal mortality. The main strategy has been recruitment of female health volunteer in villages, Accredited Social Health Activist, and expansion of infrastructure, mainly buildings, transport, and digitization. However, in comparison to this huge investment, the outcome improvement is very less. The transformation of policy to program needs suitable political and technical interventions. The marginalized groups are neglected due to both their ignorance and state apathy. This article attempts to touch upon these issues to show that the strategies are not competent enough unless the human resource and infrastructure expansion complement each other.

Key words: Maternal health, health policy, National Rural Health Mission, health reform