According to the National Report of the fifth round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5),the Total Fertility Rates (TFR), an average number of children per women, has further declined from 2.2 to 2.0 at the national level between NFHS-4 & 5.
At national level, obesity has increased from 21 percent to 24 percent among women and 19 percent to 23 percent among men.
The level of stunting among children under 5 years has marginally declined from 38 to 36 percent for India since the last four years. Stunting is higher among children in rural areas (37%) than urban areas (30%) in 2019-21
Vadodara:
India has made significant progress in population control measures in recent times, said a government report.
According to the National Report of the fifth round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5),the Total Fertility Rates (TFR), an average number of children per women, has further declined from 2.2 to 2.0 at the national level between NFHS-4 & 5.
The report was released by Health and Family Welfare, Mansukh Mandaviya at the ‘Swasthya Chintan Shivir’ being held at Vadodara, Gujarat on Thursday.
There are only five States in India, which are above replacement level of fertility of 2.1. They are Bihar (2.98), Meghalaya (2.91), Uttar Pradesh (2.35), Jharkhand (2.26) Manipur (2.17).
The unmet need for spacing, which remained a major issue in India in the past has come down to less than 10 per cent.
However, compared with NFHS-4, the prevalence of overweight or obesity has increased in most States/UTs in NFHS-5. At national level, it increases from 21 percent to 24 percent among women and 19 percent to 23 percent among men.
More than a third of women in Kerala, A&N Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Sikkim, Manipur, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Punjab, Chandigarh and Lakshadweep (34-46 %) are overweight or obese.
Overall Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) has increased substantially from 54% to 67% in the country. Use of modern methods of contraceptives has also increased in almost all States/UTs. Unmet needs of family Planning have witnessed a significant decline from13 per cent to 9 per cent.
The proportion of pregnant women who had an Antenatal care (ANC) visit in the first trimester increased from 59 to 70 percent between NFHS-4 and NFHS-5. In most of the States, with the maximum increase of 25 percentage points in Nagaland, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Haryana was noticed.
In contrast, Goa, Sikkim, Punjab and Chhattisgarh showed marginal decrease in first trimester ANC visits. A considerable progress is noticed in 4+ ANC at the national level from 51 percent in 2015-16 to 58 percent in 2019-21.
Institutional births have increased substantially from 79 percent to 89 percent in India. Even in rural areas around 87 percent births are delivered in institutions and same is 94 percent in urban areas.
Institutional births increased by a maximum of 27 percentage points in Arunachal Pradesh, followed by over 10 percentage points in Assam, Bihar, Meghalaya, Chhattisgarh, Nagaland, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. Over 91 percent of districts have more than 70 percent of births in the last 5 years that took place in health facilities.
In NFHS-5, more than three-fourths (77%) children age 12-23 months were fully immunized, compared with 62 percent in NFHS-4. Full vaccination coverage among children ranges from 57 percent in Nagaland to 95 percent in DNH & DD. Odisha (91%), Tamil Nadu (89%), and West Bengal (88%) also have shown relatively higher immunization coverage.
The level of stunting among children under 5 years has marginally declined from 38 to 36 percent for India since the last four years. Stunting is higher among children in rural areas (37%) than urban areas (30%) in 2019-21.
Variation in stunting ranges from the lowest in Puducherry (20%) and highest in Meghalaya (47%). A notable decrease in stunting was observed in Haryana, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Sikkim (7 percentage points each), Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Manipur (6 percentage points each), and Chandigarh and Bihar (5 percentage points each).
NFHS-5 shows an overall improvement in SDG indicators in all States/UTs. The extent to which married women usually participate in three household decisions (about health care for herself; making major household purchases; visit to her family or relatives) indicates that their participation in decision making is high, ranging from 80 percent in Ladakh to 99 percent in Nagaland and Mizoram. Rural (77%) and urban (81%) difference is found to be marginal.
The prevalence of women having a bank or savings account that they use has increased from 53 to 79 percent in the last 4 years.
Moreover, India is also moving towards the direct bank transfer of benefits to the beneficiaries of its various programmes. In addition, India has committed to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The MoHFW is constantly monitoring the SDG related health goals. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a number of new challenges related to health system have been emerged in the country.
Between NFHS-4 and NFHS-5, the use of clean cooking fuel (44% to 59%) and improved sanitation facilities (49% to 70%), including a hand-washing facility with soap and water (60% to 78%) have improved considerably.
There has been a substantial increase in the proportion of households using improved sanitation facilities, which could be attributed to the Swatch Bharat Mission programme.
In this context, NFHS-6, which is scheduled to be conducted during 2023-24, propose to cover various new domain areas, which include:
“COVID-19 hospitalization and distress financing, COVID-19 vaccinations, Director Benefit Transfers (DBT) under various welfare schemes initiated by GoI, Migration, Utilization of health services –Health and wellness centre, health insurance/ health financing, digital literacy, counselling on family planning after abortion and incentives under new methods of family planning, quality of family planning programme, menstrual hygiene, marital choice, visit by community health workers for health awareness and needs, supplementary nutrition from the Anganwadi/ ICDS center while breastfeeding, blood transfusion (month and year), financial inclusion among women, knowledge of anaemia, Hepatitis B &C, Syphilis etc.”
On the occasion of Chintan Shivir, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has also released the Rural Health Statistics publication for the year 2020-21 (as on 31st March, 2021).
It is a vital source of information on health infrastructure and human resources available in the public health institutions of all States/UTs.
As per RHS 2020-21, there are 157819 Sub Centres (SC), 30579 Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and 5951 Community Health Centres (CHCs) respectively functioning in rural and urban areas of the country. Besides this, a total of 1224 Sub Divisional/Sub District Hospital and 764 District Hospitals (DHs) are operational throughout the country.