Does Male Participation In Maternal Health Can Achieve MDGs In India?

This study analyzes the individual, familial and contextual factors affecting male involvement in the maternal health using data from 2005-06 NFHS-3. Information collected from men age 15-49, having a living child age 0-35 months at the time of survey. The findings reveal that over half of such men accompanied their wife for ANC when they were pregnant with their youngest child. Increasing education and exposure to mass media are having significantly positive impact on male participation in ANC. However, increasing educational gap between husband and wife adversely affect the male participation in maternal health in India. Rich, poor and urban men in comparison to rural men are the privileged groups, where significantly larger proportion of men are more likely to be informed by Health professionals about potential pregnancy complications to their wives. Men from schedule castes and schedule tribes are the less informed group. Thus, there is an urgent need to adopt certain innovative approaches to enhance male participation in MCH services right from timely ANC to safe deliveries, so that India can achieve the millennium developments goals relating to maternal and child health.