24 percent domiciliary births in Delhi

NEW DELHI - As many as 86,363 of the total 3.5 lakh births in the national capital took place at home, says a survey.

According to an annual report ‘Registration of Birth and Death Events in Delhi-2009′, 24 percent of the births took place at home in 2009.

Also, 1.59 lakh or 45 percent of the births took place in government hospitals whereas 31 percent or 1.09 lakh babies in the year were born in the city’s private hospitals.

Delhi’s Finance and Planning Minister A.K. Walia said: “Our target should be to reach 85-90 percent of institutional deliveries in the next 2-3 years.”

Moreover, nearly 3.5 lakh births were registered in the city in 2009 against a figure of 3.3 lakh a year ago.

The report also pointed out that the birth rate per thousand in Delhi was recorded at 20.21 in 2009, more than what it was around 20 years ago.

There were over 1.12 lakh deaths registered in the capital in 2009 as against 1.08 lakh a year ago. The average number of deaths per day in Delhi was 307 in 2009.

The report said that about 61 percent of the total deaths were reported by the medical institutions while the remaining 39 percent were non-institutional.

However, Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) per thousand live births saw a marginal increase with a rate of 18.96 in 2009 as compared to 18.38 in 2008.

The report, prepared by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics and released Tuesday, said maximum deaths were reported in the months of December (10,405) and January (10,296) while the minimum were recorded in the months of April and February — 8,439 and 8,348, respectively.

In its findings, the report said cancer claimed more lives in the capital with 3,936 people dying due to the disease while diabetes claimed 4,671 lives.

“There were 16,158 deaths due to heart diseases, 2,558 because of tuberculosis and as many as 927 people committed suicide,” it added.