J&K achieves single digit neonatal mortality rate

The report was released on Saturday by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, GoI for 22 states and Union Territories.

“If we compare the achievements in key health indicators recorded in National Family Health Survey report (NFHS-5) 2019-20 with the NFHS-4 of 2015-16, J&K has recorded 22 points decrease in Neonatal Mortality Rate (NNMR) from 23.1 to 9.8, 16 points decrease in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) from 32.4 to 16.3 and 19 points decrease in Under Five Mortality Rate (U5MR) from 37.6 to 18.5, which is unprecedented and is the reflection of health status of general population,” read the report.

The report also indicated a positive change towards the girl child in Jammu and Kashmir and recorded improvement in Sex Ratio at birth from 923 to 976 females per1000 males.
Average number of children per woman which is measured by Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has also shown a significant improvement since the last report which decreased from 2.0 to 1.4.

Antenatal Check-ups of mothers in first trimester and institutional births, which are important indicators for decreasing the Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) and utilization of health facilities have also shown significant improvement in the last 2-3 years.

“The Antenatal Check-ups (ANC) in the first trimester of mothers have increased from 76.7% to 86.6% and the Institutional births have increased from 85.5 percent to 92.4 percent,” it read.

Accordingly the percentage of fully immunized children (12-23 months) against the vaccine preventable diseases which has bearing on under five mortality by preventing the common childhood disease has also increased from 84.4 percent to 96.7 percent since the last 2-3 years.

The Financial Commissioner Health and Medical Education, Govt of Jammu & Kashmir and Mission Director NHM while expressing their satisfaction and happiness on the achievements in key health indicators congratulated Govt. Medical Colleges; Directors of Health Services Jammu and Kashmir, Directors Family Welfare, MCH & Immunization, Director of AYUSH, allied departments and all healthcare functionaries working at grass root level across the length and breadth of Union Territory for their efforts in strengthening Maternal & Child Care facilities.

They also appreciated the efforts taken by National Health Mission staff and development partners working in UT for their support in establishing new Neonatal and Maternal healthcare facilities and strengthening the existing ones.

The progress in scaling up the interventions to save the lives of the newborn has substantially accelerated during recent times leading to significant improvement in Child Health Indicators.

Special New-born Care Units (SNCU) have been established in 27 District / other equivalent Hospitals, 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) in GMCs, New Born Stabilization Units (NBSUs) in 65 Community Health Centers and New Born Corners (NBCCs) in 264 delivery points with financial and technical support from National Health Mission.