The Health and Family Welfare Ministry has set up a technical expert group to examine the adverse findings from the National Family Health Survey 5 (NFHS 5).
It released the Factsheets of key indicators on population, reproductive and child health, family welfare, nutrition.
The first phase of NFHS 5 covers the 22 states and Union Territories in the period of 2019-20.
Four rounds of NFHS (1992–93, 1998–99, 2005–06 and 2015–16) have been successfully completed in India.
All the rounds of NFHS have been conducted by the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai.
Key Findings
The replacement level of fertility (2.1) has been achieved in 19 out of the 22 States/UTs.
Only 3 states Manipur (2.2), Meghalaya (2.9) and Bihar (3.0) have Total Fertility Rate above the replacement levels now.
Overall Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) is the highest in Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal (74%).
More than two-third of children are fully immunized in all the States and UTs except Nagaland, Meghalaya and Assam.
Sikkim, Assam, Goa and Jammu & Kashmir witnessed a steep decline in Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR), Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Under-Five Mortality Rate (U5MR).
Meghalaya, Manipur and Andaman & Nicobar Island reported increase in all the three categories of child mortality – NMR, IMR and U5MR.
Among all the surveyed states and UTs, Bihar displayed the highest prevalence in Infant and child mortality in all three categories, while the lowest death rate was reported in Kerala.
Infant and child mortality declined in most of the Indian states.
Majority of the states are in normal sex ratio of 952 or above.
It is below 900 in Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Dadra Nagar Haveli & Diu Daman.
The children born between 2014 and 2019 are more malnourished than the previous generation.
Though India displayed improvement in child malnutrition between NFHS 3 (2005-06) and NFHS 4 (2015-16), the nation has now taken U-turn for the worse in terms of malnutrition among children.
The percentage of men with high or very high blood glucose is highest in Kerala (27%) followed by Goa (24%).