PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences ISSN 2454-5899 Available Online at: http://grdspublishing.org/ 738 Humtsoe & Soundari, 2019 Volume 5 Issue 1, pp. 738-755 Date of Publication: 9 th May 2019 DOI-https://dx.doi.org/10.20319/pijss.2019.51.738755 This paper can be cited as: Humtsoe, M. Y., & Soundari, M. H., (2019). Maternal Health Care Practices of Lotha Naga Tribal Women in India. PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences, 5(1), 738-755. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA. MATERNAL HEALTH CARE PRACTICES OF LOTHA NAGA TRIBAL WOMEN IN INDIA Mhadeno Y. Humtsoe, Ph.D Centre for Applied Research, Gandhigram Rural Institute, Tamil Nadu, India mhadenhmt@yahoo.com Dr. M. Hilaria Soundari Centre for Applied Research, Gandhigram Rural Institute, Tamil Nadu, India hilarasoundari@gmail.com Abstract Tribal Women in India are more privileged in various ways as in comparison with the women of caste hierarchy. However, due to geographic isolation, they are deprived of access to basic amenities like livelihood opportunities, education, health, and sanitation. The twin factors of distance and cost of intensive maternal health care expenses hinders the tribal women in accessing to the health care services. For this reason, the traditional health care practitioners are profoundly preferred and they have been the largest maternal health care providers to the tribal women. The Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) in India was 174 in 2015 (WHO, 2018) and the MMR in the State of Nagaland accounts of 160 (GOI-UNDP Report Nagaland, 2016). The Nagaland State also indicates as the lowest and poorest in maternal health care among the Northeastern States in India with an institutional delivery of only 33 percent. The institutional delivery in Wokha District of Nagaland accounts of 34 percent (NFHS-4, 2016). Thus, the study has been undertaken with an objective to portray the maternal health care status of the Lotha tribal women; to describe the maternal health care practices among Lotha tribal women; and to determine the health care infrastructure in the