Healthy India

Swasth Report Of Uttar Pradesh: India’s Most Populous State Grapples With Anaemia Among Women, Child Wasting And Diarrhoea

From 2005-06 to 2015-16, the infant mortality rate and under-five mortality rate in Uttar Pradesh has dropped down by 12.32 per cent and 18.75 per cent respectively

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New Delhi: With a population of nearly 20 crores (199,812,341), Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state in India, according to Census 2011. Just a decade ago, in 2001, the total population of the state was 16.62 crore (166,197,921) that is about 20.23 per cent growth in population. Uttar Pradesh forms 16.50 per cent of India’s total population in 2011 that is why the state’s poor performance in health indicators is a cause for concern for the country’s overall health indicators. According to the NITI Aayog Health Index report of 2019, Uttar Pradesh was the least performing state with an overall score of 28.61 as opposed to its previous score of 33.69. The decline in the overall Health Index score between the base year (2015-16) and reference year (2017-18) is attributed to the performance related to low birth weight, TB treatment rate, among others.

Also Read: Actor Sidharth Malhotra Shares Fitness Tips At The Swasthagraha

Here’s a look at Swasth Report of Uttar Pradesh and its performance in terms of health indicators:

  1. Infant Mortality Rate (IMR): Infant mortality rate (IMR) is the number of deaths per 1,000 live births of children under the age of one. In Uttar Pradesh (UP), the infant mortality rate dropped by 12.32 per cent from 73 (2005-06) to 64 (2015-2016), as per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 4. The fall is not even half of the 28 per cent drop seen at an all India level during the same period. Despite the decline in IMR, Uttar Pradesh tops the list of most number of infants dying in India at birth.
  2. Under-Five Mortality Rate (U5MR): As per the NFHS 4 data in Uttar Pradesh, the under-five mortality rate (U5MR) that is the number of deaths per 1,000 live births of children between birth and five years of age, has shown an improvement. From 96 in 2005-06 to 78 in 2015-16, the U5MR has come down by 18.75 per cent which is still less than the 32 per cent drop seen at an all India level.

    The status of infant and under-five mortality rate in India’s most populous state – Uttar Pradesh

  3. Malnutrition: Malnutrition is a clinical condition that stems from a diet in which one or more nutrients are either inadequate or in excess. The lack of right amount of nutritional intake leads to various forms of malnutrition like child stunting (low height for age), wasting (low weight for height), and obesity, among others. The most populous state has malnourished children which over the years have not shown much improvement.Though the cases of stunting among children under 5 years of age has come down from 56.8 per cent to 46.3 per cent, which is a drop of 10.5 per cent. The levels of stunting in children in Uttar Pradesh is still above the national average of 38.4 per cent. Also, at an all India level, 9.6 per cent drop was witnessed in child stunting.Child wasting surged in Uttar Pradesh by 3.1 per cent (from 14.8 per cent in 2005-06 to 17.9 per cent in 2015-16) versus 1.2 per cent in the country.As far as the percentage of underweight children in the state are concerned, it has fallen from 42.4 per cent in 2005-06 to 39.5 per cent in 2015-16 which is a fall of 2.9 per cent. During the same decade, the percentage of underweight children in India dropped by 6.7 per cent.

    While child stunting and underweight decreases, wasting upsurges in Uttar Pradesh

    Chief Minister (CM) Yogi Adityanath has decided to eradicate child malnutrition and improve the health status of the state. For the same, on September 1, which marks the beginning of Poshan Maah (nutrition month), CM Adityanath celebrated ‘Child Nutrition Festival’ wherein health check-ups were carried out and nutrition packets were distributed among adolescent girls.

    He said, “Healthy children are the foundation of a healthy and strong India. With interdepartmental coordination, public awareness, we can all win the war against malnutrition.”

    Also Read: Swasth India: Malnutrition Causes 45 Per Cent Child Deaths In India

  4. Anaemia Among Children And Women: Anaemia is a condition caused due to low Haemoglobin (Hb) available in the body and if left unattended, it can adversely impact the heart. In the state, while anameia among children (6-59 months) has decreased by 10. 7 per cent (from 73.9 in 2005-06 to 63.2 in 2015-16), it has increased by 2.5 per cent among women belonging to the age group of 15-49 years.

    Anaemia among women in Uttar Pradesh witnesses a gentle increase

    Overall the country did show a slight improvement aswell as anaemia decreased by 10.8 per cent in children and 2.2 per cent in women.

    Also Read: National Nutrition Week 2019: Over 50 Per Cent Of Pregnant Women In India Are Anaemic, Reveals National Family Health Survey

  5. Diarrhoea: According to National Health Profile (NHP) 2019, Uttar Pradesh contributed 9.37 per cent to the total number of acute diarrhoea cases in the country (1,34,16,748) in 2017 and by 9.91 per cent (13,08,083) to total cases of over 1.3 crore (1,31,94,775) in 2018. In 2017, deaths due to acute diarrhoeal diseases stood at 309 deaths whereas in 2018, the number of deaths came down to 229, which is a drop of 25.88 per cent.

    Deaths due to acute diarrhoeal diseases drop by 25.88 per cent

Note: National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) fieldwork for Uttar Pradesh was conducted from February 2016 to September 2016 and gathered information from 76 thousand (76,233) households, which covered 97,661 women, and 12,939 men.

Also Read: The Crisis Of Diarrhoea In India

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