NEW DELHI: Institutional deliveries in India increased from 88.6 per cent in 2019-2021 to 90.6 per cent in 2023-24, moving closer towards universal coverage, as per the National Family Health Survey-6 released on Friday.
However, the country saw a sharp increase in the number of caesarean section (C-section) deliveries.
The NFHS-6 data showed that C-sec increased from 21.5% in 2019-21 to 27.2% in 2023-24, with urban areas recording the maximum increase. While deliveries through C-sec stood at 40.5% in urban areas, it was 22.8 % in rural areas.
The data also showed that C-sec - a surgical technique that involves making an incision in the mother's belly to deliver one or more infants - were seen more in private health facilities as compared to public.
Deliveries through C-sec in private health facilities stood at 54.1%, compared with 47.4%. In public health facilities, C-section deliveries also rose – from 14.3% to 16.9%.
Although the survey showed that women’s economic status has gone up, from being internet literate (from 33.3% to 64.3%), holding more bank accounts (78.6% to 89.0%), to having their own mobile phones (53.9% to 63.6%), the fairer sex continues to marry early as compared to men.
Women aged 20-24 years married before age 18 years saw just a marginal dip – from 23.3% to 20.1%, with rural areas seeing the majority of such marriages at 23.3%, as compared to urban areas at 11.4%.
Also, women aged 15-19 years who were already mothers or pregnant at the time of the survey did not see much change in their position, from 6.7% as compared to 6.8%. Here also such instances were more common in rural areas at 7.9% compared to 3.4% in urban areas.
The data showed a decline in women facing spousal violence, physical violence during pregnancy and sexual violence by young girls. Ever-married women aged 18-49 years who have ever experienced spousal violence dipped from 29.2% to 22.3%, with rural (24.4 %) women facing more violence compared to urban women (17.5%).
Ever-married women aged 18-49 years who have experienced physical violence during any pregnancy saw a slight dip from 3.1% to 2.7%, again rural women faced it more (2.9% ) as compared to (2.3%) urban women.
Young women aged 18-29 years who experienced sexual violence by age 18 saw a dip from 1.2 % to 0.7%. Here too, 0.8% of women in rural areas faced it, compared to 0.4% of urban women.
However, alcohol and tobacco use were more common among men than among women.
But women were found to be overweight or obese as compared to men. Over 30.7% women, up from 24%, were overweight or obese as compared to 27.3% men.
More women in urban areas - 42.8% - were obese as compared to 25.5% in rural areas. Similarly, obesity among men also saw a sharp hike from 22.9% to 27.3%, with urban areas reporting 36.3% and rural areas at 23%.
The data, which covered nearly 6.79 lakh households across 715 districts, showed improvements in child health indicators, with reductions in stunting and severe wasting.
While stunting (low height for age) among children under five years declined from 35.5% to 29.3%, severe wasting (too thin for one’s height) declined from 7.7% to 5.2%.
However, the prevalence of underweight among children under five registered a marginal decline from 32.1% to 31.8%.
The latest data showed improvement in infant and young child feeding practices. Children aged 6-8 months receiving solid or semi-solid food along with breastmilk increased from 45.9% to 59.5%.
However, the proportion of children under age six months exclusively breastfed declined from 63.7% to 55.8%, with urban areas showing 54.5% and rural areas 56.2%.
Children under the age of three years who were breastfed within one hour of birth increased from 41.8% in 2019-2021 to 50.1% in 2023-24.
The data showed that India’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR) remains at 2.0. The Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) increased from 66.7% to 69.1%.
The survey, which provides vital evidence on population, health, nutrition and family welfare indicators and supports evidence-based planning and programme implementation up to the district level, also found that 95.9% of pregnant women received antenatal care (ANC), while mothers receiving ANC in the first trimester increased from 70.0% to 76.2%. Mothers receiving at least four ANC visits also increased from 58.5% to 65.2%.
Births attended by skilled health personnel improved from 89.4% to 91.3%, while postnatal care for newborns by Doctor/Nurse/Lady Health Visitor (LHV)/Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM)/Midwife/other health personnel within two days of delivery improved from 79.1% to 85.3%.
Maternal nutrition indicators also showed notable improvement. Mothers consuming iron folic acid supplements for 100 days or more during pregnancy increased from 44.1% to 54.9%, while those consuming supplements for 180 days or more rose from 26.0% to 37.8%.
Conducted by the Union Health Ministry, in collaboration with the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, as the nodal agency, the data showed that there has been consistent progress towards universal immunisation coverage.
Full vaccination coverage among children aged 12-23 months, as recorded on vaccination cards, increased from 83.8% to 87.1%. As many as 95.6% of children received most vaccinations through public health facilities.
A substantial increase in rotavirus vaccination coverage has been recorded, from 36.4% to 85.4%. Coverage of the second dose of measles-containing vaccine also increased significantly from 58.6% to 71.8%.
The survey also recorded improvements in key child health indicators. Prevalence of symptoms of acute respiratory infection (ARI) among children declined from 2.8% to 1.9%, while prevalence of severe diarrhoea also declined to 0.5%.