Kota Infant Deaths Highlight Rajasthan's Dismal Healthcare

by GoNews Desk 4 years ago Views 3856

Kota Infant Deaths Highlight Rajasthan's Dismal He
Following the deaths of more than 100 children in the J K Lone Hospital in Rajasthan’s Kota, a political outcry has begun. After an investigation into the state’s health services during the last Assembly elections, GoNews had reported that Rajasthan’s health indices are below the national average.

In the past decade, Rajasthan may have made it out of the category of ‘bimaru’ (backward) states, but it still lags behind in healthcare. Amid this, a look at the statistics on health and the basic structure related to health presents a disappointing picture.


According to the latest figures of the National Family Health Survey, the state’s condition in the matter of Maternal Mortality Ratio is shameful. In Rajasthan, 294 mothers die during the birth of 1 lakh infants, while the ratio on the national level is 192. This means that in Rajasthan, 102 more mothers than the national average die. 

Over here, during birth, 53 infants die per 1000 infants, whereas the average national Infant Mortality Rate is 47, which means that 04 more kids than the national average die in Rajasthan.

In the matter of underweight kids, the state’s figures are near the national average. Over here, from 2006 to 2016, the average of underweight or malnourished children below the age of five years is 38.30 while its national average is 39.10.

Among figures of sex ratio, there are 965 women per 1,000 men here whereas the national average is 996, which means that in Rajasthan, there are 31 fewer women as compared to men than the national average.

However, the state government’s expenditure on health services is higher than the national average.

In the financial year 2012-2013 and 2015-2016, Rajasthan government spent 1.15% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health services, while the national average spent on health during this time was 1.05%.

The condition of the basic infrastructure related to health services in Rajasthan is poor.

There were a total of 1,528 Primary Health Centres in Rajasthan in 2010, which increased to 2,079 in 2017. But in the year 2010, there were 23,673 Primary Health Centres across the country, which increased to 25,650 in the year 2017.

There were 368 Community Health Centres in Rajasthan in 2010, which increased to 579 in the year 2017. But in the year 2010, there were 4,535 Community Health Centres across the country, which increased to 5,624 in 2017.

However, according to the statistics of the Health Index Report released by the Niti Aayog in June 2019, in the ranking of health services of states across the country, compared to 2015-2016, in 2017-2018, Rajasthan jumped from the 20th spot to occupy the 16th spot.

But these figures are from the year 2017-2018, while figures for the year 2019 have not been released yet.

Watch the full report here:

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