Infant mortality rate continues to drop in Maharashtra

The infant mortality rate in Maharashtra came down to 19 deaths per thousand births in 2016, public health minister Deepak Sawant said today.
With this, Maharashtra is ranked third, after Kerala and Tamil Nadu, in terms of low infant mortality among states.
Sawant, in a release, credited the continuing decline of infant mortality to the efforts taken by his department.
The figures are from a 'Sample Registration System' survey, an annual exercise undertaken by the union government. The report for 2016 was released today.
Infant mortality rate is the lowest in Kerala at 10 deaths per thousand births, followed by Tamil Nadu (17).

Maharashtra is witnessing decline in infant mortality in the last few years. The rate dropped from 24 deaths per thousand births in 2013 to 22 in 2014, 21 in 2015 and 19 last year.
Vaccination drives and government's efforts to ensure that more and more deliveries take place in government or private hospitals (instead of at home) led to this fall, Sawant said.
The government paid special attention to tribal areas including Palghar district near Mumbai as these areas report higher malnutrition. Javhar and Mokhada areas of Palghar had reported 93 infant deaths in 2015; the number fell to 38 last year, the release said.