Several of India's socio-economically backward, or Empowered Action Group (EAG), states, namely Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Odisha and Chhattisgarh, have made great strides over the last decade with regard to some of the key health indicators.

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For instance, all EAG states (Bihar, Jharkhand, MP, Chhatisgarh, Odisha, Rajasthan, UP and Uttaranchal), and Assam have witnessed an increase of over 40 percentage points in institutional births, according to the National Family Health Survey-4. A rise in the number of institutional deliveries is crucial as it helps reduce maternal and infant mortality, besides ensuring better health for women and children in the long run. This is also evident in the 20 percentage point drop in the infant mortality rate in Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Odisha.

Reuters

"As a step towards ensuring equitable health services across regions that suffer from disparities, special efforts were made to allocate more resources in backwards states and regions," a health ministry official said. In 2015, the health ministry had identified 184 poorly performing districts where more resources were infused and focused programmes launched to bring about sharper improvement in outcomes.

Though the survey findings, released by the health ministry earlier this week, do not contain data for poll-bound UP on account of the model code of conduct, the state registered the maximum decline, 1.1 children per woman, in the total fertility rate over the last 10 years.

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Among the five states with the highest infant mortality (death within one year of birth per 1,000 live births) and under-five mortality (risk of death by age five, per 1,000 live births) rates, four are EAG — Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. Though Bihar features among the top five states vis-a-vis sex ratio, it fared the worst in female literacy rate and financial inclusion of women.