Shivpuri has high infant mortality rates

In picture a child who recovered from severe malnutrition from Nutritional rehabilitation centre, sleeping on a cot in his own house in a village in Shivpuri

Admitting to the highest infant mortality rate in the country, Madhya Pradesh recently said that 130,233 children died in the state before attaining the age of five between 2005 and 2009. During the same period, the state received Rs 1601.80 crore in grants from the Centre under the National Rural Health Mission which includes the Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) programme that seeks to reduce infant and maternal mortality rates besides attempting to reduce the total fertility rate. Under RCH, the state government made a budgetary provision of Rs 65.06 crore between 2005 and 2010 but spent only Rs 37.96 crore.

Public Health Minister Anoop Mishra presented these figures while responding to questions in the Assembly. Between 2005 and 2008, the infant death toll was 122,422 but the ratio improved thereafter with the state reporting 7,811 deaths between January 2008 and December 2009. In the four critical years, Satna district reported 7,257 deaths while Chhatarpur and Balaghat lost 6,542 and 5,666 children. Shivpuri, Guna, Rewa, Shahdol and Sidhi were among the districts with high mortality rates.

Mishra said 70 children lost their lives per 1,000 live births but this was an improvement over 2001-2002 when the ratio was 86 deaths: 1000 live births. He attributed malnourishment to early marriages and early pregnancies; underweight children; absence of complete immunisation; failure of mothers to only breast-feed infants up to six months and give them nutritional food later; infection; and, poverty.