Bhopal, The very recently released state specific report of NFHS -3 brings out a very grim picture of Health indicators among tribal communities. It mentions that 140 tribal children perish on every 1000 live births; means 14% children are not surviving to celebrate their 5th birthday and die before it. It is much higher then the Madhya Pradesh average Under5 mortality of 94.2 per one thousand live births.
Neonatal Mortality refers to number of death during the first 28 days of life per thousand live births in a given year.
Infant mortality rate (IMR) is the number of deaths of infants per thousand live births before reaching the age of one.
The under-five mortality rate or child mortality rate is the number of children who die by the age of five, per thousand live births.
More then 56 children die within just 28 days of birth, where as it is 44.9 for the state and 95 die without celebrating their first birthday, in comparison to the state average of 69.5 for the state. The status of child survival among tribal communities is a great matter of concern for Madhya Pradesh.
| Vulnerability of Madhya Pradesh in IMR & Child Mortality among Schedule Tribes |
| State |
IMR among Schedule Tribes |
Under 5 Mortality |
| M.P. |
95.6 |
140.4 |
| C.G. |
90.6 |
128.5 |
| Rajasthan |
73.2 |
113.8 |
| Gujrat |
86.0 |
115.8 |
| Jharkhand |
93.0 |
138.5 |
| Orissa |
78.7 |
136.3 |
Malnutrition in tribal children is again found to be the higher. The state fact sheet shown that 60% of the children were malnourished, but the recent report says, 71.4% children in tribal families are living with the curse of malnutrition.
The state of Madhya Pradesh is the one of the biggest contributor of total neo-natal & child mortality in the country. The survey report of National Family Survey (NFHS-3) India presents the terrible situation of child care in the state but the data on caste based classification of child fatality in Madhya Pradesh by the latest state report of NFHS-3 Madhya Pradesh paints an outrageous state of affairs of efforts made to protect the right of survival of every child.
Providing safe childhood to their young children is just a day-dreaming for parents belonging to downtrodden caste/tribe in the state. In Madhya Pradesh 56.5/1000 new born in Schedule tribes had to pay the cost of taking birth in schedule tribe by giving away their life. 56.5 neonates born in Schedule tribe died in the first 28 days of birth per thousand live births. Similarly 50.2 neonates per thousand live births from schedule caste died off in neo-natal period.
| Caste/Tribe |
Neo-natal Mortality |
Infant Mortality |
Under 5 Mortality |
| India |
39 |
57 |
74.3 |
| Madhya Pradesh |
44.9 |
69.5 |
94.2 |
| Scheduled Caste |
50.2 |
81.9 |
110.1 |
| Scheduled Tribe |
56.5 |
95.6 |
140.7 |
| Other Backward Class |
53.3 |
79 |
97.6 |
| Other |
39.6 |
66.8 |
79.9 |
The schedule caste (15.17%) & schedule tribe (20.27%) together form 34.44 percent of total population in Madhya Pradesh but it is unfortunate that these section of the society are not assured whether their child will survive or not by tomorrow. In comparison to the 94.2/1000 under 5 mortality, the chance of survival is much lesser among SC & ST child population under five years of age with 110 & 140 mortality per thousand live births.
Exploring the basic underlying causes of such a high prevalence of child mortality among these vulnerable section of the society divulge that circumstance like malnutrition & anemia among the young kids, low rate of initial breastfeeding & no vaccination are the major determining factors.
| Caste/Tribe |
Any Anemia in Children |
Breastfeeding within an hour of birth |
All basic vaccination (12-23 moth) |
Malnutrition in children (0-3yrs) percentage below -2 SD1 |
| M.P. |
74.1 |
15.9 |
40.3 |
60.3 |
| SC |
75.6 |
17.4 |
40.5 |
62.6 |
| ST |
82.5 |
11.7 |
22.3 |
71.4 |
| OBC |
70.6 |
16.8 |
41 |
57.4 |
| Other |
68.5 |
18.2 |
62.4 |
45.3 |
Situation of children belonging to SC, ST & OBC in terms of all basic indicators of health is defenseless. The chance of survival of tribal child is very stumpy with 71.4% children malnourished, 82.5% children having anemia under different grades. Merely 11.7 percent tribal children born in last five year preceding the survey are breastfed within an hour of birth in comparison to 15.9% total children given breastfeeding & merely 22.3 percent children of ST having all basic vaccination.
Children belonging to other backward class is having little advantage over schedule caste in terms of anemia among children, breastfeeding practices & status of malnourishment among the children. Against 75.6% children from schedule caste suffering from anemia, 70.6% children from other backward classes bearing it.57.4% of OBC community are malnourished which is below the state average & on the contrary 62.6% ST children are above state average of 60.3%. But if we perceive it on the whole all three SC, ST & OBC children are at risk.
In spite of such sky-scraping infant & child mortality no special efforts has been made for depriving section. Still merely 51.9 percent children age 0-71 months belonging to tribal caste have an access of any services of Aaganwadi centers. It puts a big question mark on the prime objective of integrated child development services (ICDS) to improve the nutritional and health status of children below the age of six years.
- Seema Jain
1The current WHO recommendation to use the Z-Score or SD system to grade undernutrition |
