STATUS OF REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH OF WOMEN IN INDIA: A REVIEW.

Reproductive health of women remains a major development task in any country. The first International Safe Motherhood Conference hold in 1987 in Nairobi, Kenya to launch the Safe Motherhood Initiative (SMI). The Conference was the beginning of a safe motherhood initiative to reduce maternal mortality by 50% and to improve reproductive health of a woman by the year 2000. The World Bank has been financing activities to improve women?s health especially in the area of maternal and child health and in family planning. In developing countries like India fertility rates among women greatly depend upon their education, age and living conditions. Educated women living in urban areas have less number of children as compared to illiterate women living in rural areas. The age-specific fertility rate was the highest (194.3) for women in the age-group 20-24 years followed by age-group 25-29 years (149.7) and 30-34 years (63.9). Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Under 5 Mortality Rate (U5MR) also vary with the area they live. For example, in Assam Infant Mortality Rate in rural areas are 59 whereas in urban area it is 31. Reproductive health of a woman is maintained by reducing fertility rate and spacing among births. The use of various contraceptives is best known alternative.