Meghalaya fared badly as far as key indicators on population, reproductive and child health, family welfare, nutrition and others are concerned.
This was revealed in the factsheets of key indicators on population, reproductive and child health, family welfare, nutrition and others for 22 states and union territories of the first Phase of the 2019-20 National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5).
Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan released the factsheet on December 12.
These 22 Phase-I states and union territories are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura, West Bengal, Andaman Nicobar Island, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh and Lakshadweep. The fieldwork in the remaining 14 (Phase-II) states and union territories is currently under progress.
The key results from the factsheets showed that infant mortality rate – defined as the probability of a child born in a specific year or period dying before reaching the age of one – has also slipped in most states out of the 22 surveyed states in the first phase except Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura and Andaman & Nicobar Island.
Likewise, these four states and UTs have shown rise in the prevalence of Under-5 mortality rates, i.e., probability of dying before age five per 1,000 newborns.
In terms of neonatal mortality rate which is defined as the number of deaths to infants under 28 days of age in a given year per 1,000 live births in that year, the number of such infants who died in Meghalaya is 14.2 in urban areas and 20.6 in the rural areas
As far as infant mortality rate, Meghalaya is seeing rising mortality rate which is 23.4 in urban areas and 33.6 in rural areas. Infant mortality rate is defined as the number of deaths of infants under age 1 per 1,000 live births in a given year.
Meghalaya, Manipur and Andaman & Nicobar Island also reported a hike in all the three categories of child mortality.
The deaths of children under five years of age were found to be high in Bihar, Tripura, Meghalaya, Assam, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. In Meghalaya it was 23.4 in urban areas and 42.6 in the rural areas.
The under-five mortality rate is defined as the number of deaths to children under five years of age in a given year per 1,000 live births in that year.
The unmet needs of family planning have witnessed a declining trend in most of the Phase-1 states and UTs. The unmet need for spacing which remained a major issue in India in the past has come down to less than 10 per cent in all the states except Meghalaya and Mizoram.
India’s population is stabilising, as the total fertility rate (TFR) has decreased across majority of the states.
Of 17 states analysed in the fifth round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS), except for Bihar, Manipur and Meghalaya, all other states have a TFR of 2.1 or less, which implies that most states have attained replacement level fertility.
The first set of findings from the fifth NFHS, conducted in 2019-20, was released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on December 12, four years after the last survey (NFHS-4, 2015-16).
Manipur (2.2), Meghalaya (2.9) and Bihar (3.0) performed badly in terms of TFR which is above replacement levels now.
TFR has further declined since NFHS-4 in almost all the Phase-1 states and UTs. The replacement level of fertility (2.1) has been achieved in 19 out of the 22 states and UTs while Meghalaya, Manipur and Bihar are lagging behind.
Full immunisation drive among children aged 12-23 months has recorded substantial improvement across states and UTs. More than two-third of children are fully immunised in all the states and UTs except Meghalaya, Nagaland and Assam.
