Southern Assam districts in a priority list for child mortality reduction

A CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Two scientific papers on child survival in India published by the India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative have highlighted southern parts of Assam as priority districts for child mortality reduction.

The districts were identified as those that fell in the category of high under-5 mortality rate (U5MR) and neonatal mortality rate (NMR) in 2017 and low annual rate of reduction from 2010 to 2017.

In Assam, which had the second highest child mortality rate in 2017, the highest priority category of high U5MR and NMR and low annual rate of reduction was concentrated in the southern part of the State (Cachar, Dima Hasao, Hailakandi, Karbi Anglong, Karimganj, and West Karbi Anglong), the study said.

The India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative was launched in 2015 as a collaborative effort between the Indian Council of Medical Research, Public Health Foundation of India, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, and a number of other key stakeholders across India under the aegis of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.

Over 300 leading scientists and experts representing about 100 institutions across India are engaged with this collaborative work.

The annual rate of reduction from 2010 to 2017 for U5MR ranged among the States from 2.7 percent in a small north-eastern State of Nagaland to 6.5 percent in the middle socio demographic index (SDI) State of Telangana, and for NMR from 1.8 percent in Nagaland to 5.5 percent in the high SDI State of Tamil Nadu.

U5MR in India reduced by 49 percent from 83 in 2000 to 42 per 1000 live births in 2017, and NMR reduced by 38 percent from 38 to 23 per 1000 live births during this period.

There were 1.04 million under-5 deaths in India in 2017, of which 0.57 million were neonatal deaths, down from 2.24 million under-5 deaths including 1.02 million neonatal deaths in 2000, the survey highlighted.

The highest number of under-5 deaths in 2017 were in the State of Uttar Pradesh (312,800 which included 165,800 neonatal deaths) and Bihar (141,500 which included 75,300 neonatal deaths).

U5MR varied 10.5 times between the 723 districts of India in 2017, ranging from 8 to 88 per 1000 livebirths, and NMR varied 8.0 times, ranging from 6 to 46 per 1000 livebirths. The highest district-level U5MR and NMR in 2017 were comparable to the highest rates globally among some Sub-Saharan Africa countries.

The highest increases in inequality between districts were in Assam and Odisha among the low SDI States, in the small north-eastern States of Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, and in Haryana among the middle SDI States.