Health data variations show why UP's health programme needs overhaul

A complete policy overhaul may be necessary for UP to improve its performance in health & nutrition

At a time when India’s sex ratio at birth is low and declining–from 909 (2011) to 887 (2014)–there are, in poor, populous Uttar Pradesh (UP), districts such as Aligarh, Moradabad, Mainpuri, Deoria and Balrampur, with sex ratios at birth exceeding 1000–in other words, better than any state in India.

So, too, with the infant mortality rate (IMR) and maternal mortality ratio (MMR). Kanpur Nagar district in western UP had an IMR of 37 in 2012-13, which was better than the Indian average