NFHS-3 reveals poor immunisation, nutrition status of children

New Delhi, Feb 16 (UNI) Even though India has made tremendous economic growth, the progress of the country in human development issues like nutrition and immunisation has been far from satisfactory, the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) data has revealed.

The wide economic divide and lack of accessibility of quality healthcare facilities and education in the rural areas can be attributed for this slow pace of immunization and poor nutrition status of children and women.

Despite making considerable progress in pulse polio immunisation programme, the overall immunization status of children has remained more or less stagnant. The growth in full immunisation, which moved from 35.5 per cent in NFHS 1 and 42.0 percent in NFHS 2 to 43.5 percent in NFHS-3, conducted under the stewardship of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, serving as the nodal agency.

Only 39 per cent of children in the age group of 12 months to 23 months in rural area are vaccinated fully. Though the number of urban children in the age group who had received all recommended vaccines was more than their rural counterparts, the percentage of urban children receiving it had declined from 61 per cent in the NFHS 2 conducted to 58 per cent in NFHS-3 which provides information on population, health, nutrition in India for each of the 29 states.

The percentage of underweight children has not shown any significant decline in the last seven years. About 46 per cent of children in the survey were found to be underweight while 19 per cent were wasted which meant too thin for weight and 38 per cent stunted or too short for age.

Though the infant mortality rate has declined from 68 per 1000 live births to 57 per 1000 live births, it was yet very high at 62/1000 in rural areas. Poverty, illiteracy and lack of adequate health facilities in the rural areas could be atributed for this.

Though a larger proportion of mothers in rural areas exclusively breastfeed their children (0-5 months) as compared to urban mothers, as far as feeding of solid and semi-solid foods along with breast milk, urban mothers score over rural mothers.

About 80 percent of children in India have been found to be anaemic which is a major cause of morbidity and mortality both among children and during pregnancy. Anaemia causes weakening of the immune response.

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