The Socio Economic Determinants Of Low Birth Weight Babies Of Slums In Mumbai Metropolitan Region

The public health care policies are responsible for human resource development. Such human resource promotes economic growth and development in any region. But public health care policies are ineffective in slums of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. It has affected on birth weight, infant and child mortality and malnutrition. The incidence of low birth weight is found more in slums of Kalwa. The illiterate and secondary school studied parents have high incidence of low birth weight babies. The mild BMI of parents have more incidence of low weight at birth. The use of modern contraceptive is very low among parents. The antenatal visits are lower among the pregnant women in slums. The logistic regression results shows that the low birth weight children have positive relationship with mothers secondary school, mild BMI, eat pulses and chicken and use of withdrawal method of contraceptive. The low birth weight babies are negatively co-related with normal BMI, reading magazine, eat curd and eggs and iron and folic acid tablets during pregnancy. Therefore policies such as full antenatal care to pregnant women are required on urgent basis in all slums. Health care staff must spread awareness of pre and post natal care and provide modern contraceptives in slums of metropolitan region. Government must provide the vocational training to unskilled workers to improve their income earning. It will not only improve their income earning but also physical and electronic asset holding. More awareness of nutrition, hygiene and family planning will result into more birth weight of babies. The poor people need affordable housing, sanitation and water supply in all slums of Mumbai Metropolitan Region.