India accomplished landmark achievement in child mortality: Union Health Minister
HY News
24 September, 2022 12:23 pm IST
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India has accomplished landmark achievement in child mortality and witnessed progressive reduction in infant death rates, the ministry of health and family welfare said.
Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Mansukh Mandaviya lauded efforts of all health workers, caregivers and community members for relentlessly working towards reducing child mortality.
In the meantime, India’s latest population sample registration survey has shown improvements in child mortality and the average sex ratio at birth.
But that ratio — a possible indicator of pre-natal sex determination and sex-selective abortions — has declined in 10 states, including Bengal.
The Union health ministry, releasing the SRS Statistical Report 2020, said the progressive reductions in the neonatal, infant and under-five mortality show that the country is moving towards achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets by 2030.
India’s average neonatal mortality (deaths within 30 days of birth) declined to 20 per 1,000 live births in 2020 from 22 in 2019 and 26 in 2014, the report says.
Infant mortality (deaths within the first year after birth) fell to 28 in 2020 from 30 in 2019 and 39 in 2014, while under-five mortality declined to 32 in 2020 from 35 in 2019 and 45 in 2014.
Six states have attained the SDG target of 12 for neonatal mortality — Kerala (4), Delhi (9), Tamil Nadu (9), Maharashtra (11), Jammu and Kashmir (12) and Punjab (12).
The national sex ratio at birth — the number of girls born per 1,000 boys — improved by three points from an average 904 in 2017-19 to 907 in (the partly overlapping period of) 2018-20.
But the ratio fell in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bengal, Delhi, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana and Uttarakhand.
Kerala has the highest sex ratio of 974 while Uttarakhand has the lowest at 844. In Bengal, the ratio has fallen from 944 to 936.
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