Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (SUMAN) scheme

News:Union Minister for Health along with several State Health Ministers launched Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (SUMAN) initiative for Zero Preventable Maternal and Newborn Deaths.

Facts:

About SUMAN:

• The scheme aims to provide dignified and quality health care at no cost to every woman and newborn visiting a public health facility in order to bring down maternal and infant mortality rates in the country,
• Under the scheme, pregnant women, mothers up to 6 months after delivery and all sick newborns will be able to avail free healthcare benefits such as four antenatal check-ups and six home-based newborn care visits.
• The scheme will enable zero expense access to the identification and management of complications during and after the pregnancy.
• The government will also provide free transport from home to health institutions.
• The pregnant women will also have a zero expense delivery and C-section facility in case of complications at public health facilities.

Additional information:

Maternal mortality rate:

• Maternal mortality refers to the number of maternal deaths which occur due to pregnancy or as a result of a complication of the same. 
• Maternal mortality rate(MMR) is taken as the number of recorded maternal deaths, for every 1 lakh live births.
• According to the government,India’s maternal mortality rate has declined from 254 per 1,00,000 live births in 2004-06 to 130 in 2014-16. 

Infant mortality rate:

• Infant mortality rate(IMR) is the number of deaths per 1,000 live births of children under one year of age.
• Between 2001 and 2016, the infant mortality rate has also come down from 66 per 1,000 live births to 34.