The SUMAN Roadmap 2030, launched by Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Jagat Prakash Nadda, during the 16th Conference of the Central Council of Health and Family Welfare, is a comprehensive, multi-dimensional and evidence-driven strategy to strengthen maternal and newborn healthcare across India. SUMAN, which stands for Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (meaning Safe Motherhood Assurance), has been developed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to combine national health priorities with local healthcare needs and accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
India has registered significant gains in maternal and newborn health through sustained policy interventions and strengthened healthcare delivery systems. The maternal mortality ratio has declined from 130 to 87 per 1 lakh live births between 2014–16 and 2022–24. However, maternal and newborn mortality continues to remain a challenge in certain geographies, particularly high-focus states. The roadmap, therefore, moves beyond a uniform approach by providing customised, differentiated, and time-bound interventions according to the needs of states and districts.
Life-Cycle Approach and High-Risk Pregnancies
The roadmap is anchored within Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health plus Nutrition (RMNCHA+N) framework covering reproductive health, maternal health, newborn health, child health, adolescent health, and nutrition. The roadmap adopts a life-cycle approach. This framework integrates interventions from pre-pregnancy through pregnancy, childbirth, and the postnatal period, while promoting convergence with child health, adolescent health, family planning, and nutrition programmes for seamless and person-centred care.
A structured four-stage framework provides for the identification, tracking, and management of high-risk pregnancies through antenatal care, third-trimester care, intrapartum care, and the postnatal period of risk management. This approach seeks timely identification of danger signs, appropriate clinical management, and timely referrals to higher healthcare centres.
The strategy incorporates field-level learnings on transportation challenges, healthcare access in tribal and hard-to-reach areas, quality emergency obstetric care, community participation, and the growing impact of climate change on maternal and newborn health.
Targeted District-Level Interventions
The roadmap introduces focused and time-bound interventions across 130 districts in 13 high-focus states, including Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal. At the same time, it outlines strategies for all states and union territories to sustain progress and achieve saturation of quality maternal and newborn healthcare services.
For the identified high-focus states, the SUMAN package for pregnant women promotes timely registration, complete antenatal care, quality clinical assessment, and adequate post-partum institutional stay. Bi-weekly home visits by Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) during the eighth and ninth months of pregnancy would support screening of danger signs, nutrition counselling, birth preparedness, and reinforcement of institutional delivery.
The roadmap also provides financial support for designated caregivers during the critical postnatal period and special support for referral transport during obstetric emergencies. In difficult and underserved areas, health infrastructure would be strengthened through Birth Waiting Homes, Maternal and Child Health Wings, Obstetric High Dependency Units, and Intensive Care Units.
Community Participation and Health-System Strengthening
For all states and union territories, the roadmap envisages institutionalising pre-pregnancy folic acid supplementation for women planning conception, nutritional interventions, addressing maternal anaemia and undernutrition, and strengthened surveillance and management of high-risk mothers throughout the continuum of care.
Community participation is an important pillar through SUMAN Panchayats and Mothers’ Picnic initiatives. SUMAN Panchayats seek to promote zero maternal deaths, zero infant deaths, universal antenatal care, institutional deliveries, and full immunisation while strengthening local accountability.
Mother’s Picnic is a health awareness community platform for pregnant women and new mothers that aims to promote awareness, participation, and adoption of positive health practices.
The strategy further provides for strengthening Maternal Death Surveillance and Response and Maternal Near Miss reviews, wider deployment of Non-Pneumatic Anti-Shock Garments for obstetric haemorrhage management, AI-enabled labour rooms, enhanced digital monitoring through the Journey of Antenatal, Natal, and Neonatal Integrated Care (JANANI) portal, climate-responsive action to address heatwaves and other climate-related risks, and optimisation of caesarean section practices.
The roadmap also integrates the Samagra Shishu Bal Swasthya Karyakram for home-based care from birth to 36 months. Centres of Excellence for maternal and newborn healthcare, a centralised SUMAN call centre for grievance redressal, stronger referral linkages, and robust digital monitoring and reporting are envisaged to support effective implementation.
Targets and Way Forward
The roadmap aims to reduce the maternal mortality ratio to below 70 per 1,00,000 live births by 2030, further lower the neonatal mortality rate and infant mortality rate, achieve universal saturation of maternal and newborn health services across all states and union territories, and realise the goal of zero preventable maternal and newborn deaths.
The launch of SUMAN Roadmap 2030 represents a national strategy combining evidence-based interventions, digital innovation, health-system strengthening, and active community participation. By focusing on high-burden districts while sustaining strategies for universal coverage, it seeks to strengthen safe motherhood and healthy newborns and create a more resilient, equitable, and responsive maternal and newborn healthcare ecosystem.
Long-term impact will depend upon grassroots participation through platforms such as the JANANI portal or SUMAN Panchayats. Achieving zero preventable maternal and newborn deaths requires moving beyond a one-size-fits-all approach towards data-driven, localised, and life-cycle healthcare delivery in an effective manner.
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