Our Bureau
New Delhi
The Sample Registration System report for 2023 issued by the Registrar General of India has recently come out and has shown great signs for the country. As per the report, the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) of the country 12 years back in 2013 was sitting at 40, has now dropped down to record depths and sits at 25, recording a sharp fall of 37.5%.
The Infant Mortality Rate of a country is one of the major public health indicators. IMR is defined as the number of deaths of children per 1,000 live births under one year. So, the lower the number of IMR the better the health accessibility of the country.
As per the SRS 2023 report which accounted for the data in that year, the IMR has been declining sharply when compared to previous years. The rate has seen a 80% decline from 1971 when it stood at 129. Also the report highlighted that states like Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, and Uttar Pradesh have reported the highest level of IMR at 37 whereas Manipur was at the lowest with an exceptional record of 3 and Kerala was second with a score of 5.
The report showed that the IMR has gone down drastically for both rural and urban areas in the country when compared to the rates in 2013. In rural areas IMR has gone from 44 to 28 and has seen a drop of 36% whereas in urban areas the number has dropped from 27 to 18 showing a drop of 33%.
The report by the country’s Registrar General has also highlighted the decline in birth rates and death rates all across the nation in the past 5 decades. However, when just talking about rural areas the birth rate remains to surge high in comparison to urban areas.
“The Birth Rate at all India levels has declined drastically over the last five decades from 36.9 in 1971 to 18.4 in 2023. The rural-urban differential has also narrowed over these years. However, the Birth Rate has continued to be higher in rural areas compared to urban areas in the last five decades,” it said.
