An Expert Committee set-up to examine the findings of NFHS-5

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Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has set up a committee to look into the unfavorable findings of NFHS-5.

About

The objective of the committee is to “recommend programmatic and policy interventions to improve” indicators concerned to malnutrition, stunting, anaemia, and C-section.

The committee would be chaired by Joint secretary Preeti Pant and will also include other experts from the field of medicine and nutrition.

The National Family Health Survey is a multi-round survey conducted in a representative sample of households throughout India by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to frame policies and programs for the vulnerable section of people in the society. It collects information on several parameters and indicators. NFHS was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) with supplementary support from United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

The First National Family Health Survey (NFHS-1) was conducted in 1992-93. The survey collected extensive information on population, health, and nutrition, with an emphasis on women and young children. NFHS-5 was started in 2018-19, however due to COVID pandemic the report was put to halt for some time that was expected to be released in July, 2020.

International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai and a group of survey organizations and Population Research Centres are the implementing and co-coordinating agencies helping in the survey.

Key Findings

The survey provided data on 130 parameters covering 22 states/ UTs in the first phase. Few parameters on which the survey is based in drinking water facility in households, sanitation, electricity, sex ratio, infant/child mortality, child malnutrition, anaemia, fertility, etc.

The situation of many states has worsened in comparison to NFHS-4. Parameters such as child mortality (under 5 years of age), child wasting, child stunting, underweight children have shown adverse results in most of the states.

Sikkim, Assam, Goa and Jammu & Kashmir have observed a sharp decline in Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR), Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Under-Five Mortality Rate (U5MR).

Meghalaya, Manipur and Andaman & Nicobar Island have reported hike in all the three categories of child mortality - NMR, IMR and U5MR.

There is no change in the child mortality rate in Maharashtra. Among all the surveyed states and UTs, Bihar has the highest predominance in Infant and child mortality in all three categories, while the lowest death rate was reported in Kerala.

This is to be noted that phase I data was collected before pandemic but the second phase will include the impact of COVID on the findings.

Child Stunting (low height as per one’s age) declined in states like Goa, Kerala, Telangana, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Tripura as well saw the increase in stunting from 24.3% to 32.3%. Among all north east states Sikkim was the only state to show improvement in child stunting at 22.3%, the lowest rate as well. Similar kind of improvement was seen in Bihar.

Child Wasting (low weight as per one’s height) deteriorated in states/UTs like Kerala, Ladakh and others.

On the other hand, Karnataka displayed remarkable improvement in child wasting.

In case of Underweight Children (low weight as per one's age & height), Kerala and Telangana displayed deterioration, whereas , improvement was seen in Bihar.

Significance

Enormous surge in child malnutrition and rising levels of anaemia in women and pregnant ladies clearly signify that the children born during 2015-2019 might be suffering from deficiencies.

Nevertheless, India displayed improvement in child malnutrition between NFHS 3 (2005-06) and NFHS 4 (2015-16), the nation has now turnaround for the worse in terms of malnutrition among children, as per the NFHS 5 results.