The Equity Impact of Participatory Women’s Groups to Reduce Neonatal Mortality in India

Progress toward the Millennium Development Goals has been uneven, especially in maternal and child health. One third of global childhood deaths are attributable to inequalities in socioeconomic mortality within countries. Even though effective interventions are known, they are rarely available to those who desperately need them. Community-based interventions are critical to improve neonatal survival, but the equity impact of these endeavors is unclear. The cluster-randomized controlled Ekjut trial involving a participatory women’s group intervention in India provided an opportunity to assess the effect of community interventions on equity and found a strong effect of women’s groups on the neonatal mortality rate (NMR). The present secondary analysis was undertaken to determine whether the strong effects of the intervention on NMR were also observed among lower socioeconomic groups and whether differences in the effect of the intervention on mortality were present in the most and less socioeconomically marginalized groups.