New Delhi, Women outnumbered men in India’s National Family and Health Survey-5 for the first time, with a sex ratio of 1,020:1,000, indicating a demographic shift.
“We can say India has moved into the league of developed countries,” a health ministry official said, citing financial inclusion and combating gender bias and disparities as reasons for the shift.
The sex ratio at birth has also increased, from 919 in 2015-16 to 929 in 2019-20, indicating that policies such as the PNDT Act and others have had a positive impact.
The sex ratio was 1000:1000 in 2005-06, and 991:1000 in 2015-16, according to NFHS-3.
On November 24, the Union Health Ministry released a fact sheet with key indicators on population, reproductive and child health, family welfare, nutrition, and other health-related topics for India and 14 phase-II states and union territories.
The NFHS-5 findings for the 22 states and territories covered in phase I will be published in December 2020.
Eighty-eight percent of all births took place in a hospital, according to the NFHS-5 survey, which examined births that occurred in the five years prior to the survey.
According to government officials, India is on track to meet its goal of universal institutional births, as evidenced by a significant increase since NFHS-4 (78.9 percent ).
As a result, the country’s maternal and infant mortality rates would be reduced. The postnatal period, which includes the days and weeks following childbirth, is critical for both new mothers and their infants’ health.
For both mother and child, the first month of a baby’s life is the most dangerous. As a result, the official recommends that new mothers seek postnatal care from medical professionals within 48 hours (2 days) of delivery.
In terms of the country’s total fertility rate, an important demographic milestone has been reached (the number of children a woman gives birth to). As of 2019-21, India’s TFR is 2.0 pregnancies per woman, up from 2.2 the previous year.
In other words, women are having fewer pregnancies during their reproductive years than they used to.
According to a ministry official, this also indicates increased knowledge and use of family planning services, as well as later marriage/union, and so on.
The percentage of children under the age of five who have their births registered with the civil authority has increased from 79.7% (NFHS-4, 2015-16) to 89.1%.
A health insurance/financing scheme covers at least one regular member in 41 percent of households, up from 28.7 percent in the previous round. Health insurance and financing programmes in India have a wider reach and are more widely accepted, as this data shows.
Health insurance shields low- and middle-income families from unaffordable medical bills and even catastrophic health-care costs.
However, an official stated that the PMJAY was not fully implemented in the country at the time of the survey and thus may not have been considered in the factsheets. Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Aarogya Jan Aarogya Yojana
More than two-thirds of married women aged 15 to 49 use some form of family planning to delay or limit pregnancies in the country, compared to 53.5 percent in NFHS-4.
“That’s a significant improvement over the previous time. Health risks for women, particularly adolescents, can be reduced by using contraception and spacing births appropriately, which lowers infant mortality rates “This was stated by the official.
The country’s unmet demand for family planning services among married women aged 15-49 years fell from 12.9 percent to 9.4 percent between 2015-16 and 2019-21.
Based on information from either the vaccination card or the mother’s recall, 76.4 percent of children aged 12 to 23 months were fully vaccinated (BCG/MCV/MR/MMR/Measles and three doses of polio, excluding polio vaccine given at birth and DPT or pentavalent vaccine).
According to the findings, the nutritional status of children under the age of five in the country appears to have improved slightly since the last round of surveys. However, in order to address the country’s problems, targeted interventions are required.
