Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 12: The Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir has shown a record improvement in last 3 years in key Maternal and Child health indicators as per the latest report of National Family Healthy Survey (NFHS-5)conducted by International Institute of Population Sciences, Mumbai. The report was released today by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for 22 states/UTs
“If we compare the achievements in key health indicators recorded in National Family Healthy Survey report (NFHS-5) 2019-20 with the NFHS-4 of 2015-16, J&K has recorded 22 points decrease in Neonatal Mortality Rate (NNMR) from 23.1 to 9.8, 16 points decrease in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) from 32.4 to 16.3 and 19 points decrease in Under Five Mortality Rate (U5MR) from 37.6 to 18.5, which is unprecedented and is the reflection of health status of general population”, an official said.
The report also indicated a positive change towards the girl child in Jammu & Kashmir and recorded improvement in sex ratio at birth from 923 to 976 females per1000 males.
Average number of children per women which is measured by Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has also shown a significant improvement since last report which decreased from 2.0 to 1.4.
Antenatal Check-ups of mothers in first trimester and institutional births, which are important indicators for decreasing the Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR)and utilization of health facilities have also shown significant improvement in last 2-3 years. The Antenatal Check-ups (ANC) in first trimester of mothers have increased from 76.7% to 86.6% and the Institutional births have increased from 85.5% to 92.4%.
Accordingly, the percentage of fully immunized children (12-23 months) against the vaccine preventable diseases which has bearing on under five mortality by preventing the common childhood disease has also increased from 84.4% to 96.7% since last 2-3 years.
“One of the comprehensive measures in this regard is an action plan devised by Health & Medical Education Department with support from Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare & Norway India Partnership Initiative (NIPI) in the form of Road Map for reducing IMR in the J&K UT to single digit by 2022”, the official said.
The action plan is being implemented at all the levels and focuses on the community based and facility based interventions for accelerating rate of decline in Infant Mortality through strengthening of maternal and child health programmes, he added.
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