Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

Chennai fares better than other urban areas in Tamil Nadu, says national family health survey

CHENNAI: The National Family Health Survey - 3 has a good report card for Chennai, which according to the report has fared better than the urban population of Tamil Nadu as a whole.

Beginning with wealth and going into social development and civic issues, Chennai has a better record than the constituents of the State it serves as capital city. Half of the households in Chennai are in the highest wealth quintile, compared with just 34 per cent of urban households in the State.

Visualising the city as the per Census division into slum and non-slum areas, the NFHS – 3 report examines the differences in the development indicators of both these aspects of Chennai.

Quite naturally, more people in non-slum households (56 per cent) fall in the higher wealth quintile than those in slum areas (24 per cent).

The commonly held observation that the housing conditions are worse in slums than in non-slum areas, have been upheld by the NFHS – 3, which however, goes on to say that the differences are not large in some respects.

While indicating that access to toilet is almost universal in Chennai, the report says 42 per cent of households in non-slum areas have water piped into their dwelling or plot, compared to 21 per cent in slum areas.

In an appalling revelation, the study indicates that 22 per cent of women and 10 per cent of men aged 6 and above in slums have no education, compared with 14 per cent of females and 4 per cent of males in non-slums.

This, despite the vast number of schools under various boards of education and the extra inputs of the State to put out-of-school children and child labourers back in school.

Again, reflecting the realities of the State, the dropout begins with the older age group.

Between 15 and 17 years, school attendance was only 43 per cent in slums and 63 per cent in non-slums.

Slums exhibit notably higher mortality rates than non-slums for children during the first year of life.

The infant mortality rate is 38 per 1,000 live births in slums and in non-slums, it is lower than the State average at 24 per 1,000 live births.

This pattern is reflected in the under-five mortality rate too.

According to the report, children in slums are slightly more likely to be stunted and wasted than children in non-slums, and face more underweight problems, while with adults, obesity is not so much a problem in the slums of Chennai as it is in non-slum areas.

Nevertheless, public health experts find it striking that even in slum areas, 34 per cent of women and 18 per cent of men are overweight or obese.

Interestingly, the survey has shown that slum children are more likely to have received all recommended vaccinations against childhood diseases than those in non-slums.

For instance, the vaccination coverage of the third dose of DPT vaccine is 100 per cent in slums, but 91 per cent in other areas and for the three polio doses, the coverage is 94 per cent in slums against only 87 per cent in non-slum areas.

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