Blog 9 ; Health Inequalities

 

HEALTH INEQUALITIES” BASED ON NFHS-5 FACT SHEETS

Health and health inequalities tell us a great deal about the good or bad effects of social policies.

Michael Marmot

 The fifth in the row of NFHS series, the National Family Health Survey 2019-21 (NFHS-5), provides data on India's population, health, and nutrition for each state and union territory (UT) which shows the change in the population structure of India on a regular basis.

NFHS 5 is as similar as the previous sessions are which are NFHS 4, NFHS 3, NFHS 2 AND NFHS 1 but in the latest survey preschool education, handicap, access to a toilet facility, death registration, bathing practices during menstruation, and techniques and reasons for abortion are all the new topics added in NFHS-5. However, HIV testing has been dropped from the latest edition.

The International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) situated in Mumbai has been designated as the nodal agency for the NFHS-5 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of India. The primary objective of each version of the NFHS has been to provide high-quality data on health and family life. By presenting the new problems in this industry, as well as individual's well-being. The NFHS-5 data will be useful for comparative and research purposes. The evolution of the health-care industry over time apart from demonstrating the effectiveness of the NFHS-5 data assists in identifying the need for new programs in a specific area a concentrated effort and the identification of those in severe need of critical services.

That’s how the newly presented NHFS survey provides the data along with the change that took place in the composition of population.

The state selected for the analysis is TRIPURA one of the seven sisters from north eastern part of India.

Tripura is a state in northeastern India. It is the country's third-smallest state, covering 10,491.69 km2 and bordering Bangladesh to the north, south, and west, as well as the Indian states of Assam and Mizoram to the east (4,050.86 sq mi).

The population composition as shown in the NHFS 5 has shown some signs of changes which have occurred in that particular region. Firstly the population women in per 1000 males has increased to 1011 which is quite good in numbers as this clearly shows that awareness has come into conscience to a lot of people as the sex ratio should be maintained to balance the population growth. On the major category that attracts the viewer is that of literacy rate as we can see that the literacy rate of men are 83.6% and that of women are 78.9%, again this shows that people are working towards providing education to everyone without any biasness. The overall education level of Tripura is excellent and can improve a lot in a very short span of time.

Next category that comes into attention is that of marriage age that is being followed in Tripura. Around 40.1% of women get married before the age of 18 and men of around 20.4% gets married by the age of 21. This shows that still girls are preferred to get married soon after she attains the legal age. This soon should be changed for the betterment of everyone. The fertility rate of women in this region is 1.7 that means every woman is able to give birth to utmost 2 kids during her life time which is maintaining the population size rather than explosion of population as it is in rest of the regions of India.

This year the neonate mortality rate increased sharply to 22% from 13% as recorded in previous survey. This significantly shows that during the pandemic kids were hit hard because of lack of medical facilities.

Family planning method is also promoted over here in large number which clearly states that the people living over here are aware of all this and the importance of this for the future generation as well. The thing to notice over here is that the female sterilization rate is 10% but male sterilization is nil which means only women are forced to do this for controlling population.

The medical, vaccination, child care, maternal care and all the hospitality is going with a decent pace and has improved from previous year which is quite significant in the eye of growth prospects.

At the end, I would conclude that the data is really helpful to keep a record of the population as well which is changing drastically as the education and health sector is quite influential on the composition of society these days. Tripura is moving towards being a better place to live with all the facilities.:) :)