Committee to Study Fifth National Family Health Survey Findings
- A Technical Expert Committee has been set up by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to examine the adverse findings obtained in the Fifth National Family Health Survey.
- The committee has been chaired by Priti Pant, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Family Welfare and has also included drug and nutrition experts.
- The state program officers of Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh have also been included in the committee.
The mandate of the Committee:
The committee is tasked to recommend functional and policy interventions to improve the indicators of malnutrition, dwarfness, anemia, and C-section.
Key findings of the National Family Health Survey 5 :
- The Fifth National Family Health Survey presents data of states and union territories on more than 130 criteria. Many states have performed poorly as compared to the previous survey (National Family Health Survey4: 2015-16) on various parameters,
- Neonatal and child mortality rates have declined in most Indian states.
- A considerable decline has been observed in Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR), Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Mortality Rate of Children Under the age of five in the states of Sikkim, Assam, Goa and Jammu and Kashmir.
- Among all the states and union territories participating in the survey, Bihar saw the highest increase in all three categories of infant and child mortality, while Kerala recorded the lowest child mortality rate.
Importance of the findings of National Family Health Survey 5 :
- The huge increase in child malnutrition and, in general, the increased level of anemia among women and pregnant women clearly means that children born during 2015–2019 may suffer from weakness or disabilities.
- However, between the National Family Health Survey3 (NFHS-3) (2005-06) and the National Family Health Survey4 (2015-16) improvement in child malnutrition was observed in India, but according to the National Family Health Survey5 results, the country has taken a negative path in terms of malnutrition among children.
Source : The Hindu
