Women’s Autonomy and Utilization of Maternal and Child Health Care Services in India

Kaushlendra Kumar, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Mukesh Tiwari, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

In this paper women’s autonomy index has been constructed and its relationship to maternal and child health care utilization are investigated using data from the National Family Health Survey-3. Two categories of women autonomy viz. lower and higher have been made. The results of study show that most of socio-economic factors including women autonomy have significant influence on antenatal care and institutional delivery and child immunization. It clearly indicates the impact of women autonomy on maternal and child health care. Particularly women’s and husband’s education and place of residence, wealth index, women autonomy, and regional variation have strong positive association with health-care utilization. For instance, the impact of women autonomy is not much on antenatal visit but very much effect on institutional delivery and child immunization. Finally, it may be concluded that women with higher autonomy are more likely to use maternal and child health care services as compare to women with lower autonomy.