A Robust Pulse

In a subcontinental spread like India with a highly populous federal polity, the health challenges are many and achievements vary across states. That said, in the past 75 years, there have been several areas of success. These include...

- K. SRINATH REDDY

IMPROVEMENT IN KEY HEALTH AND DEMOGRAPHIC INDICATORS:

Life expectancy at birth has risen from 32 years in 1947 to 70.4 years now. We can do much better if the lagging states improve. The maternal mortality rate (MMR) was 2,000 per 100,000 live births in 1947. Now, it is 97, better than the global average of 158. Since 2005, India has showed a 77 per cent decline in MMR, steeper than the 43 per cent at the world level. Infant mortality rate is 28 per 1,000 live births, down from 145 in 1947. Belying fears of uncontrolled population growth, general fertility rate (GFR) has declined by 20 per cent over the past decade and total fertility rate (TFR) has reached 2.0. A sliver of hope for correction of the skewed male to female sex ratio at birth comes with change from 111 to 108 boys per 100 girls (2010-20).

DISEASE ERADICATION: After years of suffering the highest number of smallpox cases, India declared itself free of the dreaded disease in 1979. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared India polio-free in 2014. Guinea worm disease, an affliction in many states, was eradicated in 2000. India was the first country to be officially acknowledged Yaws-free. India achieved its maternal and neonatal tetanus elimination (MNTE) goal in April 2015, ahead of the global target date. Goitre was eliminated in sub-Himalayan regions through salt iodisation.