J&K’s Infant Triumph

From weak 1990s health systems to modern care, J&K cut infant deaths, but challenges remain in remote areas.

- Akhter Rugaya

Over the past thirty years, Jammu and Kashmir has slashed its infant mortality rate by more than 70%, reaching one of its lowest recorded levels in 2023-24, This is a major public health achievement.

But behind these numbers lie persistent regional gaps and new neonatal challenges that demand attention.

Infant mortality, the number of children who die before their first birthday, is one of the clearest measures of a region's health and social development.

The story of J&K's IMR over the last three decades is a story of progress shaped by health reforms, better services, and social change, but also of ongoing challenges that cannot be ignored.

In 1990-91, J&K’s IMR hovered around 70 deaths per 1,000 live births, among the highest in India at the time. Through the early 1990s, the rate stayed stubbornly high, fluctuating between 60 and 70.

Limited health infrastructure, low rates of institutional deliveries, weak immunisation coverage, and difficult terrain, especially in rural and hilly districts, kept infant deaths alarmingly common.

The first signs of improvement came around 1998-99, when IMR dropped from the mid-60s to the high-50s, thanks to early expansions in primary healthcare and immunisation.

Progress, however, was weak.