Abstract
Nearly 25 million children are born in India every year of which almost 2.7 million die before attaining the age of five years. Forty seven per cent of births take place in the four states, namely Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa, while fifty per cent of all deaths below five years also take place in these states. The present study was carried out in Jhabua district in which five per cent villages of each tehsil were selected by random sampling. Information was obtained on 430 households of 67 villages on infant and child mortality, birth order, age, sex and cause of death. 38.2% households reported the death of atleast one child below the age of five years. Out of these 59.3%, 27.2% and 13.2% reported the death of one, two or three and more children respectively. 46% of infant deaths or 29.3% of all deaths occurred in the neonatal period. The major causes of death were preventable such as tetanus, diarrhoea, measles, ARI and fever. 51.3% deaths were of children who were third or more in birth order. 54.8% deaths were males and 47.59% were females. The study shows the need for an effectiveDai (Midwife) Training Programme to upgrade the skills and an urgent necessity to improve the outreach services in remote tribal areas to bring down the infant mortality.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Unicef Report, Unicef in India: situation analysis. 73, Lodi Estate, New Delhi, 1995; 4.
Unicef Report, Child survival. The state in India, Progress Report. 73, Lodi Estate, New Delhi, 1996; 7.
Reddy Vinodini. Child Nutrition in India, Priorities for the coming decade.Ind J Pediatrics, 1993; 30: 291–300.
Unicef Report, National Progress: statistical analysis. 73, Lodi Estate, New Delhi, 1995; 52–53.
National family Health survey, MCH and Family planning Report. International Institute for population sciences, Bombay, 1993–94.
National Family Health survey,Infant and Child Mortality. Madhya Pradesh Summary Report, Population Research Centre, Directorate of Economics and statitics, Government of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal, 1995: 17–23.
Taneja Preeti,A Study of Infant Mortality rate in Kathiwada block of Jhabua District, Project Report, Dr. Baba Sahib Ambedkar National Institute of Social Sciences, Mhow, M.P. 1993; 21–27.
Padmanabha N. Registar General Report, Government of India, New Delhi, 1982.
Annual Report, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, New Delhi, 1982.
Mehta Prakash Chandra.Development of Child in the Bhil Society. A study on the Child Rearing in Infancy, First Edition, Himanshu Publications, Udaipur, 1994, 68–72.
Unicef Report, The state of the world's children. Annual Report, United Nation Children Fund, Oxford University Press, 1994; 121.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Taneja, P.V., Vaidya, N.G. Infant and child mortality in bhil tribe of Jhabua district. Indian J Pediatr 64, 409–413 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02845215
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02845215