| J&K claims improved maternal health care, statistics show otherwise | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Dec 11: While basic health parameters in Jammu and Kashmir are still poor when compared to other parts of the country, State Government is claiming that death rate of newborn is on decrease due to better child healthcare system.
As per the officials, in the year 2010, figure of infant death was 48 per 1000 children whereas it was fallen to 41 per 1000 children in 2011. At national level, Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) is 28. Official said that a high level monitoring committee on Infant Mortality Reduction (IMR) granted Rs 15.36 crore to reduce the death rate of infant across the state.
As per data, state has 20, 27, 907 of total child population. Of this; 20, 08, 642 are from age group of 0-6 years. According census of 2011, this population includes 12, 30, 133 child population of districts Srinagar. Officials added that different strategies have been adopted for child health to reduce IMR in the state.
Sources said that eight Special Newborn Care Units (SNCUs) have been established till date while seven new are to be opened. Government had approved an SNCU for Government Hospital Sarwal but this was later transferred to District Hospital Ramban. The Government has established 8 SNCU's which are in Government Hospital Gandhi Nagar, District Hospital Udhampur, Kathua, Anantnag, Leh, Kargil, Baramulla and Poonch.
While studying IMR level of 2010 with the previous year, it comes to fore that at the country level, it fell by 3 points, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab recorded a fall of IMR by 5 and 4 points respectively between 2009-10 while Jammu and Kashmir recorded decrease of only 2 points during the reference period.
Surprisingly J&K has so far not conducted maternal mortality ratio survey, an important indicator of the pregnant women. Though the Government has said that a survey is being conducted by Directorate of Economics and Statistics, but so far it has not been submitted to the Government.
Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in J&K has come down from 2.3 in 2006 to 2.2 in 2009, a decline of 0.1 per cent in two years, but it is still much higher than the targets set by Government which is 2.1 per cent.
In its response, Health Department has said that it is introducing Maternal Death and Infant Death Audits to help the planners to chalk out the future strategies for reducing the level of MMR and IMR of the state. |
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