There is quite a bit that is reassuring about the results of the first phase of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) for 2015-16, covering 13 states and two Union territories. Most states have registered significant improvements in maternal and child health indicators compared to the last survey that was carried out in 2005-06. Bihar, for instance, has seen a reduction in both infant as well as under-five child mortality rates from 61 and 84 per 1,000 live births to 48 and 58, respectively. This has been accompanied by a drop in total fertility rate — the average number of children born to a woman during her reproductive life span — from 4 to 3.4 and an increase in deliveries happening in hospitals from 19.9 to 63.8 per cent. Similar progress has been recorded in other states, too, be it Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Tripura or Haryana.
True, there’s still a long way for much of India to come anywhere near the infant mortality rate levels of Kerala (13) and Tamil Nadu (21). The latter two have also succeeded in bringing down their fertility rates to 1.7 children per woman and achieving near-100 per cent institutional births. Yet, the fact that fewer children are dying and more women are becoming mothers after their teenage years while largely delivering in hospitals — and this is taking place even in states that seemed eternally condemned to backwardness not so long ago — is something to be welcomed. One could credit this, partially at least, to interventions such as the National Health Mission and state-level initiatives that have significantly helped boost child immunisation and access to antenatal care. Rising female literacy, new welfare schemes (including MNREGA and an expanded public distribution system) and the trickle-down effects of high growth over the last decade may also have played no small role in all this.
