NEW DELHI, MAY 10: Two recent health surveys carried out by the Government have thrown up mixed results. While one reports that the Infant Mortality Rate has fallen below 60 for the first time in the country, the worrying sign is that the already low immunisation rates are showing further decline.

The most alarming is the case of Uttar Pradesh, which shows a fall in immunisation from 43.7 per cent in 1998-99 to 28.1 per cent in the latest data.

In 1998-1999, 54 per cent of the children in the country were reported to be fully immunised. But a district household survey 2002-2004, the data for which was released last month, shows a decline in this to 47.6 per cent. In 1989-99, India had one-third of the world?s non-immunised children.

Immunisation rates seem to have fallen across the country, including Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which account for 40 per cent of the total children in the age group of zero to one who need immunisation. But unlike Uttar Pradesh, Bihar has shown only a marginal decline, from 24.4 to 22.4 per cent.

Experts believe that the focus on polio eradication, at the cost of routine immunisation, could have contributed to the decline.

The other states showing low figures are Rajasthan (25.4 per cent), Tripura (26.7 per cent), Jharkhand (29.3 per cent) and Madhya Pradesh (32.5 per cent).

The states at the other end of the spectrum are Tamil Nadu (with an immunisation rate of 92.1 per cent), Kerala (81.2 per cent), Pondicherry (89.4 per cent), Goa (81.5 per cent) and Himachal Pradesh (79.4 per cent).

There is good news, however, on the infant mortality front. For the first time, India has reported IMR below 60, with the survey from Registrar General of India released recently showing 58 deaths per 1,000 live births in the country.

Though the rates are still high compared to other countries, the figures have shown decline from 68/1,000 live births in 2000, and 60/1,000 live births in 2004.

Here too, it?s the southern states which generally perform better, with Kerala at the top with 12 deaths/1,000 live births.

Source: Indian Express