NITI Aayog’s Annual Health Index 2020-21
Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana have emerged as top performers among ‘large states’ in NITI Aayog’s annual ‘Health Index’ for the COVID era for 2020-21.
Key Features of the Index:
- Large states on the basis of overall performance: Among the 19 ‘large states’, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana have secured the first, second and third places respectively in terms of overall performance. Bihar (19th), Uttar Pradesh (18th) and Madhya Pradesh (17th) rank last in the list.
- Small States: Among the eight small states, Tripura recorded the best overall performance, followed by Sikkim and Goa; Arunachal Pradesh (6th), Nagaland (7th) and Manipur (8th) rank last in the list.
- Union Territories: Among the eight Union Territories, Lakshadweep has been ranked as the top performer in terms of overall performance, while Delhi has been ranked the last.
- On the basis of incremental performance: Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Odisha have emerged as the top three performers in the year 2020-21 as compared to their performance in the year 2019-20.
Annual Health Index of NITI Aayog
In 2017, the National Institution for Transforming India, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), and the World Bank, launched an annual Health Index to track the overall performance and incremental performance of all states and union territories.
- Objective: The objective of the annual health index is to track and rank progress on health outcomes and performance of health systems, and develop a healthy competition and encourage cross learning among states and union territories.
- Parameters: The Health Index assesses states and union territories on two parameters – incremental performance (year-on-year progress) and overall performance.
- Category: The ranking is done under three categories: Large States, Small States and Union Territories to ensure comparison between similar entities.
Structure:
- The Health Index is a composite score that reflects the achievements and incremental improvements of states and union territories on 24 indicators in three areas: health outcomes, governance and information, and key inputs and processes.
- Each sector is weighted on the basis of its priority with higher scores for the outcome indicators.
- The ‘health outcomes’ include indicators such as neonatal mortality rate, total fertility rate, sex ratio at birth, immunization, proportion of institutional deliveries, notification rate of total tuberculosis cases and proportion of people living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy.
- The ‘governance and information’ sector includes indicators such as the proportion of institutional distribution, the average tenure (in months) of the three key positions at the state level, the average tenure of the Chief Medical Officer (in months) and the days taken to transfer funds.
- ‘Key Inputs/Processes’ is a measure of available health infrastructure, which includes districts with functional 24X7 primary health care centres, functional cardiac care units and the proportion of vacancies in healthcare provider positions.
Source – NITI Aayog
