Newly-released data show that a girl child aged between one and five years is more likely to die than a boy, making it one of the worst gender differentials in child mortality in any State in the country.
Infant (0-1 year) and child (1-5 years) mortality rates are declining in India and across the world though not as fast as was expected in India. Simultaneously, most parts of the world are experiencing a faster fall in female infant mortality than in male on account of well-established biological factors which make girls better survivors of early infancy given equal access to resources.
The recently-released Annual Health Survey (AHS) Bulletin- 2011-12 by the Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India revealed this dangerous trend in Odisha. Chief of Census Operation in Odisha Bishnupada Sethi released the AHS Bulletin here. In Odisha, the female infant mortality is higher than male infant mortality in all cases of rural, urban and total areas. As far as the Under Five Mortality Rate (U5MR) is concerned, Odisha is placed at the seventh place in the list of nine States, where the AHS was undertaken. Uttarakhand is having the lowest U5MR—13, it said.
In fact, the infant mortality rate (IMR) among the females is higher than males in Odisha. In rural areas, the male IMR is 58 and female OMR is 66, which is much higher than that of urban areas -- 40 and 43, respectively. Experts in the field feel that the high girl child mortality is explained by socio-cultural values. So strong is the biological advantage for girls in early childhood that higher mortality among girls should be seen as "a powerful warning that differential treatment or access to resources is putting girls at a disadvantage”, they said.
In case of IMR, Odisha is poorly placed in comparison to Jharkhand. The IMR in Odisha is 59 while Jharkhand is having the lowest IMR of 38 and Uttar Pradesh tops the list with 70. But as far as the Crude Birth Rate (CBR) is concerned, Odisha is found to be much better-placed than other bigger States like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The CBR in Odisha is 19.8 while in Bihar it is 26.3 and Uttar Pradesh 25. In case of the Natural Growth Rate (NGR), Odisha ranks first among the nine States, where the AHS was taken up, revealed Sethi.