Further drop in infant mortality, big gains for Himachal & Delhi

India’s IMR fell below the world average around 2021, and has been showing a faster decline than the global rate. But it still compares unfavourably to the average for Asia, where the IMR is around 17.4.

The IMR for the country has improved by one point from the previous year, but over the last five years, the average improvement has been 1.4 points.

Several states have made much sharper reductions in their IMR than the national average in the last decade, with Delhi, Himachal and Karnataka recording over 50 per cent declines. This change is not between IMRs of 2013 and 2023, but between the average IMRs of the 2011-13 period and the 2021-23 period. Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh show even steeper declines, but these are not directly comparable because J&K included Ladakh, and Andhra was united with Telangana in 2013.

Kerala remains the only big state with a single-digit IMR. It saw the death of just five infants below the age of one per 1,000 births, a rate comparable to most developed countries. But the state happens to have the largest difference in the IMRs of boys and girls — nine compared to two.

Smaller states such as Manipur, Sikkim and Goa also have single-digit IMRs, as do nearly all Union Territories.

Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, with IMRs of 37 each, have the worst rate in the country, followed by Odisha and Assam (30 each).