Governance

More hospital births, but limited gains in childhood nutrition: NFHS

·         The NFHS provides estimates on key indicators related to population, family planning, child and maternal health, nutrition, adult health, and domestic violence, among others.

·         Key Findings Population Use of birth control strategies increased; most states reduce their birth rate, below the target of two.1 Sex magnitude relation at birth has declined in a few states – Sex ratio at birth for kids born within the last 5 years is below 950 for seven (of the 17) states.

·         Health and Nutrition Institutional births have increased  -In seven states, over ninetieth of the births within the last 5 years were institutional births.

·         Out of pocket expenditure on deliveries increased  in some states infant mortality Rate has declined across states; but, hungriness among kids is increasing. stunting or chronic malnutrition (i.e., low height with respect to age) has increased  in eleven of the seventeen states.

·         Proportion of severely wasted kids has increased  in thirteen of the seventeen states. Wasting or acute under-nutrition refers to low weight with respect to height.

·         Children who are stunted or wasted are additional vulnerable to diseases and unwellness.

·         Obesity is rising for both men and women across all states.

·         Access to infrastructure Access to electricity, improved source of drinking water and sanitation facility has increased.

·         More women using mobile phones across all states; however, many of them do not have access to internet.

·         More women using bank accounts; ownership of house/ land amongst women declines in several states.

·         Gender related indicators Use of hygienic methods of protection during menstrual period has increased across states.

·         Gender based violence still remains high, has increased  in some states. regarding National Family Health Survey (NFHS) The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) could be a large-scale, multi-round survey conducted in a representative sample of households throughout India.

·         The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), Government of India, selected the International Institute for Population Sciences(IIPS) Mumbai, because the nodal agency, responsible for providing coordination and technical guidance for the survey.

·         IIPS collaborated with a number of Field Organizations (FO) for survey implementation.

·         Each FO was responsible for conducting survey activities in one or more states covered by the NFHS.

·         Technical assistance for the NFHS was provided mainly by ICF (USA) and other organizations on specific issues.

·         The funding for various rounds of NFHS has been provided by USAID, DFID, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF, UNFPA, and MOHFW, GOI.