An inter-district efficiency measurement of RCH program using data envelopment analysis in Madhya Pradesh, India

Abstract

Reproductive Child Health (RCH) programme is one of the most important programmes for reproductive women and child health development in India and Madhya Pradesh, the Empowered Action Group (EAG) is one of them. Using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method, this study calculates and analyses the technical efficiency of RCH programme in Madhya Pradesh. The main objective was to assess the degree of efficiency of RCH programme in the districts of Madhya Pradesh and to recommend performance targets for those districts, which come under inefficient technical inefficiency. The findings show that 64.45 percent of the districts of the state are technically inefficient and scale inefficient, and used more resources that they actually did not need. The results broadly pointed out to grave inefficiency in the RCH at district level and that significant amounts of resources could be saved if measures were put to curb the wastage.