A District-Level Analysis of Antenatal Care Utilization in Jharkhand using Sopher’s Disparity Index during COVID-19

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19) pandemic was a litmus test for the health care across the world. In almost each and every corner the impact could be seen particularly in health sector and among vulnerable populations. Women are one of the highly vulnerable populations with poor health indicators and deprived of basic health care services in India. The impact of the COVID 19 would be much higher among them than any other sections of the society because of Lockdown and inadequate and poor health care services for them in India. Therefore, this study was conducted to know spatio-temporal aspects of Maternal Healthcare Services during COVID 19 in districts of Jharkhand through National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-4 and NFHS-5. Sopher’s Disparity was used to study inter-district disparities in maternal health in Jharkhand. The analysis of Sopher's disparity index for antenatal care (ANC) indicators in Jharkhand before and after the COVID-19 pandemic highlights significant inter-district inequalities in maternal healthcare utilization. While districts such as Latehar, Simdega, and Paschimi Singhbhum demonstrated notable progress and equitable access to services, others like Koderma, Dhanbad, and Deoghar faced considerable challenges across multiple ANC indicators, including early registration, completion of four ANC visits, neonatal tetanus protection, and folic acid supplementation. The most important lesson we have learnt during the present pandemic as well as the past pandemics is that investing in preparedness can cost little and could save millions of lives.