|
|
Punjab, Haryana kids
anaemic, undernourished Chandigarh, August 20 The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) 2005-2006 state-wise reports made available recently, have brought out some shocking facts about Punjab and Haryana. The survey conducted under the stewardship of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare government of India, shows that Haryana remains the worst among its neighbouring states in taking care of its women and children while Himachal Pradesh has shown considerable improvement in the past decade. In Haryana almost 83 per cent infants of six months to three years, are anaemic while 80 per cent of the children in Punjab in this age group are anaemic. This figure is about 70 per cent for Himachal Pradesh. Surprisingly in both Punjab and Haryana more than 60 per cent of the children of educated mothers have been found to be anaemic. In Haryana, 56 per cent women are themselves anaemic while 38 per cent women in Punjab suffer from anaemia. The reports add that children of anaemic mothers have higher chances of being anaemic. In Haryana, almost half (46 per cent) of children under five are stunted or too short for their age, which indicates that they have been under-nutritioned for some time. Almost 20 per cent of the children in this age group in the state are “wasted” or too thin for their height which generally results from inadequate recent food intake.Forty per cent children are underweight which takes into account both chronic and acute malnutrition.Children in rural areas are more likely than children in urban areas to be under nutrition but even in urban areas in Haryana 38 per cent children suffer from chronic under nutrition. In Punjab, 37 per cent of the children under 5 are stunted, one in ten is wasted and almost one fourth are underweight. In Himachal Pradesh 26 per cent of the children under three were stunted, another 18 per cent wasted and over 36 per cent underweight. The girl child mortality is the worst in Punjab. Though the infant mortality rate in the state has gone down from 52 to 42 (per 1000 births) in the past decade, more than one in 24 children die in Punjab within the first year of life. In Haryana the infant mortality rate is down from 57 to 42. The child mortality rate (1-5 years) is particularly high for girls in Punjab. While 6 boys (per 1000) die before they are five years old, as many as 16 girls die before they are five. The bias against the girl child also shows up in the vaccination trends ascertained by the surveys. In Punjab, only 54 per cent of girls between the age of one to two years, compared to 65 per cent boys in the same age group are fully vaccinated. In Haryana it’s the other way round. While 68 per cent of the girls were vaccinated only 63 per cent of the boys were vaccinated. The vaccination coverage is over 80 per cent in Himachal Pradesh.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
