Education has positive impact on health but education alone will not help in recognizing and reporting health problems and utilization of health care. Women need proper health knowledge to recognize health problems. This study assesses the level of health knowledge of women of age group 15-49 years and its systematic association with the reporting of maternal health problems and health care utilization by Indian women. Based on Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS-2005) data, a 'Health

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... e Index' is constructed by using Principal Component Analyses (PCA) to understand how the level of women's health knowledge influences reporting of their own reproductive health. A huge variation has been found in reporting of maternal health problems and maternal health care utilization within same socio-economic groups by level of health knowledge. Increasing level of health knowledge is positively associated with reporting of greater pregnancy and post-natal complications by women. Higher is the level of health knowledge, greater is the level of ante-natal, institutional delivery and post-natal care seeking by women. Health education to women can help in improving their reporting of health problems and health care seeking.