MP continues to record worst infant mortality rate; boys dying more than girls

Sravani Sarkar

NewsBits.in

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh continues to carry the infamous tag of being the state with highest infant mortality rate (IMR) in country according to the Sample Registration System (SRS) data of 2015 released on Friday.

With IMR at 50 per thousand live births, the state continues to be the most unsafe in country to be born in for the 13th consecutive year. Of every 1000 kids born in Madhya Pradesh, 50 do not survive to celebrate their first birthday.

IMR is considered one of the most important health and indicator for a state and high IMR reflects gaps in the health care and nutrition services system causing deaths of the most vulnerable of a state’s populace - the infants.

The SRS data is released by the office of Census and Registrar General of India.

SURPRISE! GIRLS SAFER THAN BOYS

The interesting and surprising trend this year is that the IMR of the boys is higher at 51/1000 live births compared to 48 of girls. This is the first time that this has happened. Up until the 2014 SRS data, the IMR of girls (53/1000 live births) continued to be quite higher than that of boys (51/1000 live births.

This means that the mortality rate for the boys remained the same over one year duration (2014-2015), but that of girls dipped sharply from 53 to 48.

The girl-child friendly schemes of the state government could be one apparent reason for this surprising trend, though the ground reasons needed to be studied experts said.

The trend is similar for rural MP where the IMR for boys is 56 compared to 52 for girls (overall rural IMR – 54/1000 live births), but in urban MP, the IMR for girls is higher (35) compared to boys (34). The overall urban IMR is 34/1000 live births.

TWO POINT DIP

Though the IMR in MP has gone down by two points compared to SRS-2014 (from 52 to 50), the point of concern that also underlines the laggard efforts of MP in improving the situation.

Assam that had IMR equal to MP (worst in country) in 2013 at 54/1000 live births, managed to reduce it by five points in 2014 to 49 and is currently at IMR of 47. This means in two years, Assam managed to reduce IMR by seven points, while MP managed only four points in the duration.

HIGH BIRTH AND DEATH RATES

The SRS 2015 data also shows that the state has the third highest birth rate (25.5/1000 population) behind UP (26.7) and Bihar (26.3) and the second highest death rate (7.5/1000 population) just behind Odisha (7.6) in the country.

Birth and deaths rates are two other important health and development indicators that indicate the success of population control measures and the quality of health services available.