Do more to protect our infants

There is cause for some cheer in the Sample Registration System (SRS) data, released by the Census Commissioner of India, on the infant mortality rate (IMR) in the country. The report shows that the IMR has declined to 32 per 1,000 births in 2018 from 40 per 1,000 in 2013. The annual average decline is about 1.6 points. This is because of the improvement in child and maternal health, an uplift in living conditions for many families, extension programmes conducted by governments and many other organisations, and greater social awareness. But there is cause for concern too in the report. There are gaps in performance between rural and urban areas and between states. While one in 31 children dies within the first year of their life at the national level, the rate is one in every 28 infants in the rural areas and one in 43 infants in the urban areas. The report reveals that the sex ratio at birth has gone up to 899 girls per 1,000 boys in 2016-18, a slight increase from 896 in 2015-17. But the mortality rate is higher for female children than for male children.

The IMR is worst in Madhya Pradesh where 48 babies died per 1,000 against seven in Kerala which stands first. In the case of under-five mortality rate, MP’s performance declined from 55 per 1000 in 2017 to 56 in 2018. Neo-natal deaths increased in the state from 33 for every 1,000 babies younger than 29 days in 2017 to 35 per 1,000 babies in 2018. One baby in a thousand means tens of thousands in a state and millions in the country. The report’s message is that we should do much more to protect and save our infants. A deterioration of the rate, as in Madhya Pradesh, should be a matter of serious concern. The gap between rural and urban areas needs to be bridged. The report shows a sharper decline in rural areas than in the urban areas in the last five years, and this is a welcome trend.

The situation is likely to worsen this year because of Covid-19 and the lockdown. Infants, children and women will be among those who will be worst hit by the pandemic. Unicef has estimated that about 0.8 million children aged five or below could die over the next 12 months in the world because of lack of access to healthcare services like immunisation. Most of them are likely to be in India, and we should try to prevent them.