Friday, January 27, 2012

India’s infant mortality rate down

Child survival strategies are beginning to pay dividends with India, for the first time ever, reporting a consecutive drop of three points in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) for the second year in a row.

The country’s latest IMR is 47 as against 50 in 2009, indicating a reduced mortality of three infants per 1000 live births. If this rate of drop is sustained, India could achieve the target of bringing down infant deaths to 30 by 2015, as planned.

The highlights of 2010 Sample Registration System (SRS) data, released by the Registrar General of India, is: greater reduction in rural IMR (four points) as against urban IMR (3 points); massive improvements in problem States, with Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh leading the national IMR declines by reporting the highest reduction of 5 points each in IMR in the respective States.

Overall, rural IMR came down from 55 to 51 while urban IMR dropped from 34 to 31, nationally.

The heartening news is that almost all States managed to report IMR reductions, particularly in rural IMR, indicating better delivery of child related health services in villages.

Nine States reported a 4 point drop in IMR. These include Bihar, Odisha, Punjab, Tripura, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya and Sikkim.

Andhra, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi, Nagaland, Uttrakhand and Chandigarh saw a decline of 3 points in IMR between 2009 and 2010.

Jharkhand, UP, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur and Andaman and Nicobar Islands fared the worst nationally, with only 2 point drop in infant death rates. In Lakshadweep and Puducherry the IMR remained unchanged.

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