India’s infant mortality rate has declined 8%

• India notched up an 8% decline in the infant mortality rate (IMR) in 2016 from a year ago.
• This improvement aided by a higher number of institutional deliveries and campaigns to promote breastfeeding and immunization.

Main highlights:

• According to the Sample Registration System (SRS) bulletin, released by the Office of the Registrar General , IMR declined to 34 per 1,000 live births last year from 37 per 1,000 live births in 2015,.
• The birth cohort—babies born during the year—had come down to below 25 million for the first time.
• India has registered 90,000 fewer infant deaths in 2016 as compared to 2015.
• Total number of estimated infant deaths had declined to 840,000 in 2016 from 930,000 in 2015.
• IMR declined in 29 states and Union territories, was stable in two states and increased in five states and Union territories.
• The highest decline of 7 points was reported by Chandigarh and the highest increase of 6 points was reported by Arunachal Pradesh.
• A major reason for this achievement is the increase in number of institutional deliveries. In 2005, only 38% deliveries were taking place in hospitals; but now, more than 79.8% are institutional deliveries.
• IMR increased by 4 points in Tripura and Uttarakhand; 2 points in Manipur and 1 point in Daman and Diu.
• Among the so-called empowered action group (EAG) states, which lag behind in the demographic transition and have the highest IMRs, Bihar reported a decline of 4 points; Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand 3 points; and Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Rajasthan 2 points.
• The gender difference between female and male IMR has also reduced to less than 10 points. Earlier it used to be above 20 points. There has been a gradual change in social systems such as delayed marriages, thereby lesser adolescent pregnancies, and economic status of people with time that has also contributed to progress in health systems
• The government identified and targeted 184 districts with the worst IMR to bring about an improvement.
• The highest IMR in 2016 was reported in Madhya Pradesh (47) followed by Assam and Odisha (44), Uttar Pradesh (43) and Rajasthan (41).
• The lowest IMR was reported by Goa (8) followed by Kerala and Puducherry (10). Rural IMR (38) was 15 points higher than the urban IMR (23).
• In comparison to 2015, the rural-urban difference narrowed by one point (16 to 15). The rural IMR declined by 3 points (41 to 38).

About IMR:

• The infant mortality rate is the number of deaths under one year of age occurring among the live births in a given geographical area during a given year, per 1,000 live births occurring among the population of the given geographical area during the same year.

By: Vishal