Jharkhand has the lowest infant mortality rate (IMR), as per the recently released Annual Health Survey (AHS) 2012-13. The Infant Mortality Rate (death rate of children below 1 year) declined from 41 per 1,000 live births in 2010-11 to 38 in 2011-12 and now to 36 in 2012-13.
The survey was conducted in 304 districts in 9 States – Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Orissa and Assam by the office of the Registrar General of India. The report says that 5 districts (East Singhbhum with IMR of 25, Dhanbad — 26, Bokaro — 28, Giridih — 28 and Koderma — 27) in the State have already achieved Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing infant mortality rate to 28. Another 4 districts (Hazaribagh withIMR of 29, Ranchi — 30, Deoghar — 31 and Garhwa — 33) in the state are on track to achieve the goal by end of 2015.
However the rate is high in Godda — 54, Sahibganj & Pakur — 52 each and West Singhbhum & lohardaga — 53 each.
Not only infant mortality rate, the neonatal mortality rate (death of children below 28 days) is also lowest in the State with 23 per 1,000 live births. It declined from 26 in 2010-11, 24 in 2011-12 to 23 now. Annual Health Survey (AHS) of 2010-11 and 2011-12 has also shown low infant mortality rate and low neonatal mortality rate in the State.
Stating that Jharkhand could achieve Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing infant mortality rate to 28 in 2015, Job Zachariah, Chief UNICEF Jharkhand said, “There are globally proven interventions to reduce infant and neonatal mortality rate.”
The interventions that are used to control IMR includes increasing institutional delivery (which is only 41% in Jharkhand), breastfeeding within 1 hour (which is 41%) and exclusive breastfeeding in the first 6 months (which is only 48%). Other interventions include reducing anaemia among women (which is now 70%) and reducing open defecation (which is 93% in rural areas in Jharkhand). There is also need to improve education of girls (only 25% of girls of 15-19 years are in school) and eliminating child marriage of girls (which is about 50%) to reduce the mortality rate of children in the State.