In the district of East Godavari of Andhra Pradesh, infant mortality rate has reached a shocking high with 430 deaths reported this year in the short period between March and September.
In a survey conducted by the UN under Child Survival and Safe Motherhood Project (CSSM), five years of data on Infant Mortality Rates and Maternal Mortality Rates in the district was released. The data shows a steep increase in the number of infant deaths every year, with the period 2014-15 seeing 878 deaths.
In total, a staggering 2,560 deaths were reported between March 2011 and September 2016. In the Agency areas of Andhra Pradesh, 1,570 babies died within one year of their birth during that time.
Not just infants, but maternal deaths during this period also rose as high as 58. In the seven months since March this year, 31 such deaths have already been reported.
Eenadu quoted Ramesh Kishore, DCHS, Zilla Vaidyavidhana Parishad, Rajamahendravaram saying that malnutrition and anemia in children were prime reasons for the rising number of deaths. The District Level Household and Facility Survey that recently surveyed 1299 households in West Godavari put the rate of anemia at 75.3 percent in infants of the age group 6-59 months. Earlier, Hans India also reported that infants and mothers were succumbing even to small diseases for want of a nutritious diet and better medical facilities.
H. Arun Kumar, Collector, East Godavari told Eenadu, “There is a need to increase the number of female medical practitioners in the Agency areas. We have also requested the government to permanently allot practitioners in such areas”.