Mumbai: Infant mortality numbers have, contrary to the general reports, come down by 60% in Maharashtra, Women and Child Development Minister Pankaja Munde informed the Council on Friday.
Speaking during the Question Hour, Ms. Munde said the drop is the result of the State’s successful attempts at implementing schemes to check malnutrition in the tribal and remote areas. The number of deaths in the 0 to 1 age group was 5,415 in 2003, but it is now 940, she said.
“We are the third leading State which has managed to curb infant mortality, with Kerala and Tamil Nadu being the top two performers,” she said.
The issue of growing infant mortality in Maharashtra was raised by Nationalist Congress Party legislator Jagannath Shinde. It has been reported that the child mortality has been increasing at a rapid pace and the programmes implemented by the government are not giving any results, members of the Council said.
Earlier, reports pointed to death of 13,000 children below the age of 1 between April 2017 and February 2018. The reason for the deaths was cited as premature delivery and underweight. Recently, a study of 11,532 deaths between April 2017 and February 2018 by the health department revealed that 65% of the children — 22 a day on an average — died in the first 28 days of their life, 21% children died between 28 days to one year, and 14% died between one and five years.
In her response, Ms. Munde said the government has successfully implemented several schemes to control infant mortality in the tribal areas, which have been reporting malnourishment for many years now.
