Chhattisgarh’s infant morality rate goes down
By IANSTuesday, August 17, 2010
RAIPUR - Chhattisgarh, which has a vast population that has no access to health facilities, has improved its infant and maternal morality rates, an official here said Tuesday.
“The state government’s initiatives to reach all areas of the state’s 18 districts have started showing results as now the latest figures say the state’s infant morality rate has declined to 57 from 95 infants per 1,000,” an official of the Directorate of Health Services told IANS.
She said that maternal mortality rate has also come down to 33 from 47 per 1,000, and significantly the institutional delivery has risen to 42 percent from the earlier figure of just 14 percent.
According to the officials, Chhattisgarh’s vast areas — mainly the violence-hit forested interior hamlets — have been inaccessible to health services for decades and people travel several kilometres on foot to reach a primary health centre.
Chhattisgarh has a total of 18 district hospitals, 144 community health centres, 721 primary health centres and 4,776 primary sub-health centres.
