NFHS-5 National Report

NFHS-5 National Report

News: Recently, the National Report of the 2nd phase of fifth round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) was released.

About:
• It comprises detailed information on key domains of population, health and family welfare and associated domains like characteristics of the population; fertility; family planning; infant and child mortality; maternal and child health; nutrition and anaemia; morbidity and healthcare; women’s empowerment etc.
• The scope of NFHS-5 is expanded in respect of earlier round by adding new dimensions such as: Death registration, pre-school education, expanded domains of child immunization, components of micronutrients to children, menstrual hygiene, frequency of alcohol and tobacco use, additional components of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), expanded age range for measuring hypertension and diabetes among all aged 15 years and above.
• The main objective of successive rounds of the NFHS has been to provide reliable and comparable data relating to health and family welfare and other emerging areas in India.

Key Highlights:

Total Fertility Rate (TFR)
• The Total Fertility Rate (TFR), has further declined from 2.2 to 2.0 at the national level between NNFHS 4 and 5.
• There are only five states in India which are above replacement level of fertility of 2.1. These states are Bihar, Meghalaya, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Manipur.
• Bihar and Meghalaya have the highest fertility rates in the country, while Sikkim and Andaman and Nicobar Islands have the lowest.
• Muslims’ fertility rate has seen the sharpest decline among all religious communities over the past two decades.

Underage Marriages
• National average of underage marriages has come down.
• According to NFHS-5, 23.3% women surveyed got married before attaining the legal age of 18 years, down from 26.8% reported in NFHS-4. The figure for underage marriage among men is 17.7% (NFHS-5) and 20.3% (NFHS-4).
• West Bengal, along with Bihar, remains one of the states with highest rate of underage marriages.
• Teenage pregnancies are down from 7.9% to 6.8%.

Domestic Violence
• Domestic violence has come down marginally from 31.2% in 2015-16 to 29.3% in 2019-21.
• Domestic violence against women is highest in Karnataka at 48%, followed by Bihar, Telangana, Manipur and Tamil Nadu.
• Lakshadweep has the least domestic violence at 2.1%.

Institutional Births
• It increased from 79% to 89% in India.
• In rural areas around 87% births being delivered in institutions and the same is 94% in urban areas.

Immunisation Level
• More than three-fourths (77%) children age 12-23 months were fully immunised, compared with 62% in NFHS-4.

Stunting
• The level of stunting among children under five years has marginally declined from 38% to 36% in the country since the last four years.
• Stunting is higher among children in rural areas (37%) than urban areas (30%) in 2019-21.

Obesity
• Compared with NFHS-4, the prevalence of overweight or obesity has increased in most States/UTs in NFHS-5.
• At the national level, it increased from 21% to 24% among women and 19% to 23% among men.

Sustainable Development Goals: 
• NFHS-5 shows an overall improvement in Sustainable Development Goals indicators in all States/Union Territories (UTs).
• The extent to which married women usually participate in three household decisions indicates that their participation in decision-making is high. Household decisions include health care for herself, making major household purchases, visiting her family or relatives.
• The prevalence of women having a bank or savings account that they use has increased from 53% to 79% in the last four years.

From Prelims perspective:
Total Fertility Rate (TFR) - Replacement level fertility is the total fertility rate—the average number of children born per woman—at which a population exactly replaces itself from one generation to the next, without migration.