In a significant achievement, the infant mortality rate in Uttarakhand has reduced from 38 per thousand to 32 per thousand. In its report of May 2019, the Sample Registration System (SRS) has indicated that the mortality rate has reduced by six points. Enthused by the drop in key factor of infant mortality, the director national programme, Dr Anjali Nautiyal said that the significant drop has occurred due to various schemes undertaken by the National Health Mission (NHM) for women and child health.

Informing about the SRS bulletin released on May 30, Dr Naithani said that Uttarakhand as per the survey of SRS, 2016 had a child mortality rate of 38 per thousand which in the survey of 2017 has reduced to 32 per thousand.

Incidentally the infant mortality of the country stands at 33 per thousand which means that the mortality rate in Uttarakhand has become less than the national average. Elaborating further, Dr Naithani said that the report has been published after survey in 21 major states of the country and the improvement shows better performance of NHM in Uttarakhand. It is worth mentioning here that the Government of India had felicitated Uttarakhand after it was successful to reduce maternal mortality rate from 285 per thousand to 201 per thousand.

The chief minister of Uttarakhand, Trivendra Singh Rawat has set up a target of reducing the infant mortality to 30 per thousand till the year 2020. Dr Naithani claimed that the target set up by the CM would be achieved by effective implementation and regular monitoring of various schemes of NHM and health department.