Abstract

Vijay M. Sarode

This paper examines utilization of health services available to the women in the slums on hilly area in Mumbai and also checks whether non utilization of antenatal care (ANC) and having reproductive health problems during pregnancy create complications during child delivery vis-à-vis standard of living index constructed from household amenities, housing quality, drinking water, electricity and toilet facilities. This study uses primary data collected using cluster sampling of a sample size of 346 reproductive women who have given at least one live birth prior to the survey on the education of the study women, antenatal care indicators, antenatal check-ups and reproductive health problems during pregnancy and complications during child delivery among the slum dwellers of Ramabai Nagar was studied. The findings using logistic regression reveal unimaginably low level of utilization of health services by illiterate women in the study area. Besides these, there is evidence that these respondents did not go for ANC and faced reproductive health problems during pregnancy which created problems during child delivery, particularly to illiterate mothers. This paper suggests that awareness is very much required at every stage of ANC particularly to illiterate women with low SLI category in the slums in order to ensure reproductive health during pregnancy.