Dimapur, May 26 (MExN): The infant mortality rate (IMR) in Nagaland saw a marginal rise from 3 in 2019 to 4 in 2020, informed the latest Sample Registration System (SRS) bulletin.
The IMR, defined as the infant deaths (less than one year) per thousand live births in a given time period and for a given region, is widely accepted as a crude indicator of the overall health scenario of a country or a region, stated the office of the Registrar General of India (RGI), which released the bulletin on May 25.
With slight fall in rate, Nagaland was beaten as the state with the lowest IMR in India by Mizoram in 2020. Mizoram had 3 infant deaths per 1000 live births in 2020, against the national average of 28 in 2020.
However, in what could be considered as a significant achievement in maternal and child care, Nagaland has been able to bring down the IMR drastically in one decade up to 2020.
An analyses of the SRS Bulletins from 2011 to 2020 informed that the IMR, which was as high as 21 in 2011, first reach single digit in 2017, after steadily falling in the intervening period.
The lowest was in 2019, when it reached 3, showing 85.71% in around 1 decade. The 2020 rate is also an over 80% decline from 2011.
At the national level, the present level of IMR (28 infant deaths per thousand live births, for the year 2020) is less than one-fourth as compared to 1971 (129 infant deaths per thousand live births, the RGI noted. In the last ten years, IMR has witnessed a decline of about 36%, it added.
Among the bigger states/Union territories, Kerala continued to have the lowest IMR of 6, or six deaths per 100 infants, followed by 12 in National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi; and 13 in Tamil Nadu.
It was highest in Madhya Pradesh (43), followed by Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh (38 each). Assam and Odisha were in third with 36 each.
Among smaller states, apart from Mizoram and Mizoram, States with single digit IMR were Goa (5), Sikkim (5) and Manipur (6).
However, Meghalaya’s IMR was higher than the national average at 29; the rates were also high in Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura, at 21 and 18 respectively.
The SRS, a large-scale demographic survey conducted every year by the RGI, “provides reliable annual estimates of Infant mortality rate, birth rate, death rate and other fertility & mortality indicators at the national and sub-national levels.”
