Kerala has bagged the position of becoming the best Indian state for new-born babies with Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) in the state having being brought down to 6. The NFHS-4 report for 2015-16 unveiled by the Health Ministry makes Kerala stand at par with the United States of America in the statistics.
The IMR, which is the report of the number of children under the age of 1 who die for every 1,000 born, was released by the National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4) in its 2015-16 report. If India which currently has the IMR of 41, could bring it down to 6 like Kerala, over 7 lakh children could be saved every year.
The survey also states that over the last decade, the number of females born in comparison to males has also improved from 914 to 919 at the national level. The improvement in sex ratio was also the highest in Kerala (1,047), followed by Meghalaya (1,009) and Chhattisgarh (977).
As per the Health Ministry, the improved outcome of the survey shows the work done and the efforts that have been put in the sector.
The survey said that there was an increase of 34.1 per cent institutional births in public facility, while the Empowered Action Group (EAG) in Assam experienced more than a 40 percentage point increase.
The survey also found that the full immunisation coverage increased in Punjab, Bihar and Meghalaya by 29 percentage point each, while in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh it increased by 28 percentage points each.
The NFHS-4 report was conducted after accumulating information from 6 lakh households, 7 lakh women and 1.3 lakh men. This is for the first time that district level estimates have been provided.
