Odisha’s development story carries little weight when the latest 2016 data reveal that one in every five newborn in the State is underweight, and Sambalpur district tops with more than two babies born underweight in every five newborns. The worrying fact is that a high of around eight districts have underweight newborns higher than the State average.
According to the data available for the period April-August 2016 with the State Health Department, a high of 41 per cent of newborns in Sambalpur are underweight vis-a-vis the State average of 20 per cent. Nabarangpur follows with around 32 per cent underweight newborn. Kandhamal with 31 per cent underweight newborn is lurking closely behind Nabarangpur. Moreover, Kalahandi with around 28 per cent underweight newborn babies and Malkangiri with over 27 per cent underweight babies form the league of top-5 districts with most underweight newborns (babies who were weighed at birth).
The data further reveal that while 25 per cent babies born in Deogarh are underweight, Balangir with over 24 per cent underweight newborns follows closely.
Though Sambalpur district tops the underweight chart, Nabarangpur tops with stillbirth cases. Sambalpur has recorded around 443 stillbirth cases during the period April-August 2016. Ganjam district with around 367 stillbirths comes closest second to Nabarangpur. Mayurbhanj and Koraput follow them to make the top-5 districts with high stillbirth cases. Then Balangir follows the top-5 in stillbirth cases, reveal the data.
Stillbirth is the birth of a baby who is born without any signs of life at or after 24 weeks of pregnancy. A baby may have died during late pregnancy (called intrauterine death) or, more unusually, may have died during labour or birth (called intra-partum death).
According to the Unicef, pre-eclampsia and heavy bleeding during late pregnancy or during labour constitute a significant factor in Odisha behind stillbirths. Other factors like malaria and bacterial infections (especially Eischeria coli) also play a major role in high stillbirth cases in the State. It is generally observed that the districts with poor sanitation and nutrition condition record high incidences of stillbirths and underweight babies.
With such a state of affairs in childbirth, Odisha in the indicator of infant mortality rate (IMR) has failed to make any progress during the last decade (2005-2014) as it stuck at 34th rank (among 36 States and Union Territories) in 2014, the same it had in 2005.
This is so despite Odisha bringing down the IMR to 49 from 75 in 2005. The reason: Other States outperformed Odisha.