In May 2020, the Registrar General of India released its Sample Registration System (SRS) bulletin based on data collected for 2018 providing information on infant mortality rate (IMR),birth rate, and death rate at the national and sub-national levels.
The release by the Registrar General of India presents the following data:
- The national IMR stood at 32 deaths for every 1000 live births. Madhya Pradesh has the worst infant mortality rate in the country (48) while Nagaland has the best (4). The data showed that Mizoram was at the second spot with an IMR of 5. Goa, Kerala, and Sikkim jointly stood third with 7 per cent IMR each. Other states like Assam (44), Uttar Pradesh (42) and Odisha (41) were among the bottom of the list. Bihar had an IMR of 38.
- The national death rate stood at 6.2 per 1000 of the population. Delhi had the lowest death rate (3.3), indicating better healthcare facilities while Chhattisgarh (8) has the highest death rate.
- The national birth rate in 2018 stood at 20 per 1000 of the population. Bihar (26.2) had the highest birth rate while Andaman and Nicobar (11.2) had the lowest.
Details
The data largely reflects past trends as far as the position of states is concerned with marginal improvements at national level on health indices.Mortality is one of the basic components of population change and the related data is essential for demographic studies and public health administration.
The Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) is widely accepted as a crude indicator of the overall health scenario of a country or a region. It is defined as the infant deaths (less than one year) per thousand live births in a given time period and for a given region. The present IMR figure of 32 deaths for every 1000 live births is about one-fourth as compared to that in 1971 (129). In the last decade, IMR has witnessed a decline of about 35 per cent in rural areas and about 32 per cent in urban areas. The IMR at an all-India level has declined from 50 to 32 deaths for every 1000 live births in the last ten years. But it is still among the highest in the world.
In 2019, the IMR figures are likely to go up due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown which has resulted in many children missing their crucial vaccinations. India may over 20 million newborns in December-January during the lockdown. But pregnant mothers and babies born during the COVID-19 outbreak may be threatened by strained health systems and disruptions in services, and this could put the lives of mothers and their newborns at risk
Death rateis one of the simplest measures of mortality and is defined as the number of deaths per thousand population in a given region and time period. The death rate of India has witnessed a significant decline over the last 40 years, from 14.9 in 1971 to 6.2 in 2018. Rural places have seen a steeper decline. In the last 10 years, death rate at an all-India level has come down from 7.3 to 6.2. The corresponding decline in urban areas is 5.8 to 5.1 and in rural areas, 7.8 to 6.7.
Birth rate is a crude measure of fertility of a population and a key determinant of population growth. India’s birth rate has come down drastically from 36.9 in 1971 to 20.0 in 2018. The rural-urban differential has narrowed as well. However, the birth rate has continued to be higher in rural areas as compared to urban regions in the last four decades. The birth rate has seen around 11 per cent decline in the last decade, from 22.5 in 2009 to 20.0 in 2018. The corresponding decline in urban areas is18.3 to 16.7, and in rural areas, it is 24.1 to 21.6.
Sidelight—–
The SRS is a demographic survey for providing reliable annual estimates of infant mortality rate, birth rate, death rate and other fertility and mortality indicators at the national and sub-national levels. Began on a pilot basis by the Registrar General of India in a few states in 1964-65, it became fully operational in 1969-70. The field investigation for the survey involves enumeration of births and deaths in selected sample units by resident part-time enumerators, generally anganwadi workers and teachers, and an independent retrospective survey every six months by SRS supervisors. The data obtained by these two independent functionaries are then matched.
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