India's under 5 mortality rate sees 3-point decline

New Delhi: It seems the efforts of the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi towards reducing mortality rates among children have started yielding positive results as India has registered a landmark achievement in further reduction of child mortality rates.

As per the Sample Registration System (SRS) Statistical Report 2020 released on Thursday by Registrar General of India (RGI), the country has been witnessing a progressive reduction in infant mortality rate (IMR), under-five mortality rate (U5MR) and Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) since 2014 towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets by 2030.

Hailing the efforts of healthcare workers, caregivers and community members, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said, "There has been a sustained decline since 2014, as revealed by SRS 2020. India is poised to meet 2030 SDG targets of child mortality under leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji with focused interventions, strong Centre-State partnership and dedication of all health workers."

According to the SRS Statistical Report, India's under U5MR rate has significantly declined from 35 per 1,000 live births in 2019 to 32 per 1,000 live births in 2020, with the highest decline recorded in Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka.

It varies from 36 in rural areas to 21 in urban areas.

"The U5MR for females is higher (33) than males (31). There has been a decline of four points in male U5MR and three points in female U5MR during the corresponding period," it said.

Besides, the IMR has also registered a two-point decline to 28 per 1,000 live births in 2020 from 30 per 1,000 live births in 2019 (annual decline rate–6.7 per cent), it said, adding that the maximum IMR has been observed in Madhya Pradesh (43) and the minimum in Kerala (6).

As per the findings of the report, the rural-urban difference has narrowed to 12 points (urban-19, rural-31) and no gender differential has been observed in 2020 (male-28, female-28).

The IMR for the country has come down to 28 in 2020 from 37 in 2015, a decline of nine points over the last five years and an annual average decline of about 1.8 points, it said. "Despite this decline, one in every 35 infants at the national level, one in every 32 infants in rural areas and one in every 52 infants in urban areas still die within one year of life," the report said.

The report also mentioned that the sex ratio at birth for the country has gone up by three points to 907 in 2018-20 from 904 in 2017-19. Kerala has reported the highest sex ratio at birth (974) while Uttarakhand the lowest (844).

The NMR has also declined by two points from 22 per 1,000 live births in 2019 to 20 per 1,000 live births in 2020 (annual decline rate-9.1 per cent). It ranges from 12 in urban areas to 23 in rural areas.

According to the report, the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) for the country has also come down to 2.0 in 2020 from 2.1 in 2019. During 2020, Bihar reported the highest TFR (3.0), while Delhi, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal reported the lowest TFR (1.4). At present, the TFR of a rural woman is 2.2 at the national level which is higher than that of an urban woman (1.6).

Six states/UTs, namely, Kerala (4), Delhi (9), Tamil Nadu (9), Maharashtra (11), Jammu and Kashmir (12) and Punjab (12), have already attained the SDG target of Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) (less than or equal to 12 by 2030).

Eleven states and Union territories (UTs) — Kerala (8), Tamil Nadu (13), Delhi (14), Maharashtra (18), Jammu and Kashmir (17), Karnataka (21), Punjab (22), West Bengal (22), Telangana (23), Gujarat (24), and Himachal Pradesh (24) — have already attained SDG target of U5MR (less than or equal to 25 by 2030), the report mentioned.