National Family Health Survey 6 Insights

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The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released the latest data from the National Family Health Survey-6 for the 2023-24 period.
This new survey shows that India achieved a major milestone in healthcare for mothers and children.
In simple words, 90.6% of all births in India now happen in proper medical institutions like hospitals.
This rise in institutional deliveries brings the country very close to achieving safe childbirth for every mother.

The survey shows major progress in child health, nutrition, family planning, and the empowerment of women.
Key government programs like Janani Suraksha Yojana and POSHAN Abhiyaan drove these positive changes.
However, the report also highlights new worries like rising obesity rates and more surgeries during childbirth.
India still needs to work on improving nutrition and stopping the rise of lifestyle-related diseases.

Institutional deliveries grew from 88.6% in the previous survey to 90.6% in the latest round.
Trained healthcare workers now assist in 91.3% of all births, which is up from 89.4% earlier.
Newborn care within two days of birth also improved, rising from 79.1% to 85.3%.
Pregnancy registrations for antenatal care reached 95.9%, and first-trimester care tracking increased to 76.2%.
More mothers now take iron folic acid tablets, with 54.9% taking them for at least 100 days during pregnancy.
In addition, the share of pregnant women taking these supplements for 180 days or more grew to 37.8%.
Government initiatives like the Janani Suraksha Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana helped make these improvements possible.

Child stunting for children under five years old dropped from 35.5% to 29.3%.
Severe wasting among young children also fell significantly from 7.7% to 5.2%.
The percentage of underweight children under five saw a slight decrease, moving from 32.1% down to 31.8%.
More infants aged six to eight months now receive solid food along with breast milk, rising to 59.5%.
Full vaccination for children aged 12 to 23 months rose from 83.8% to 87.1%.
Public health centers provided the vast majority of these vaccinations, accounting for 95.6% of the total.
Better storage facilities and the new U-WIN digital platform helped boost the Universal Immunization Programme.
Specifically, rotavirus vaccination rates jumped from 36.4% to 85.4% due to these digital tracking upgrades.
The coverage for the second dose of the measles vaccine also grew from 58.6% to 71.8%.
Cases of acute respiratory infections among children fell to 1.9%, while severe diarrhea fell to 0.5%.
Almost all babies under six months, around 95.6%, now receive only breast milk.
Breastfeeding within the first hour of birth improved by nearly ten percentage points, reaching 50.1%.
Programs like POSHAN 2.0 and the Integrated Child Development Services drove these nutritional improvements.

India's Total Fertility Rate remained steady at 2.0, which is below the replacement level of 2.1.
This means that India's population is now on a path toward long-term stabilization.
Use of family planning methods increased, with the contraceptive rate rising from 66.7% to 69.1%.

Internet usage among women nearly doubled, climbing from 33.3% to 64.3% in the latest survey.
Mobile phone ownership among women also saw a healthy increase, rising from 53.9% to 63.6%.
More women now run their own bank accounts, with the number rising from 78.6% to 89.0%.
Use of clean menstrual hygiene products among young women aged 15 to 24 grew to 79.2%.
Schemes like the Menstrual Hygiene Scheme and affordable products from Jan Aushadhi centers helped this progress.
Families with health insurance grew from 41.0% to 60.2%, largely due to the Ayushman Bharat scheme.

The survey is a large-scale study that collects health and family data from households across India.
The first round of this survey started back in the 1992-93 period.
The International Institute for Population Sciences in Mumbai coordinates and guides this nationwide survey.
The main goal is to give the government reliable district-level data to help design better health policies.

The sixth round covered 6.79 lakh households across 715 districts in India.
Field workers used tablets and computers for interviews to validate the data in real time.
This round also tracked newer topics like Direct Benefit Transfer and women's self-help groups.
Researchers expanded medical testing to include physical measurements, blood tests, and HIV testing.

Caesarean section births jumped from 21.5% to 27.2%, which exceeds the safe limit set by the World Health Organization.
In private hospitals, C-sections reached 54.1%, suggesting that commercial interests might drive these surgical births.
India now faces a double challenge of both undernutrition and rising obesity rates.
Obesity among women aged 15 to 49 rose to 30.7%, with urban women reaching 42.8%.
For men in the same age bracket, obesity rates rose to 27.3%.
Chronic diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure are rising alongside these obesity numbers.
Nearly one in three children still suffers from stunting, showing that nutritional improvements must speed up.
Over one-third of pregnant women still do not complete the recommended four prenatal checkups.
Removing blood-based anemia testing from this survey round drew criticism from health experts.
This missing data makes it harder to track the success of the Anaemia Mukt Bharat campaign.

The government must audit private hospitals that perform too many surgical births.
Training more specialized midwives can help promote natural and safe deliveries instead of surgeries.
To fight obesity, India should tax unhealthy processed foods and introduce clear warning labels on food packages.
Health workers can use the U-WIN digital platform to find and vaccinate children who missed their shots.
Local health clinics need better digital tools to track and treat chronic diseases early.

The survey shows that India is making good progress toward its global health goals.
However, rising lifestyle diseases and nutritional gaps mean India must focus more on preventive health.