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Diversity in Child Mortality and Life Expectancy at Birth Among Major Tribes in Selected States of India

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Abstract

Objective

To provide tribe- specific child mortality rates and health indicators from selected states in India.

Methods

We used Census 2011 data and Coale Demney methodology to estimate the infant mortality rate (IMR), under-five mortality rate (U5MR) and expectation of life at birth (LEB) for 123 tribes of selected states of India.

Results

The estimated IMR and U5MR were higher in scheduled tribe population compared to respective state’s total population. The IMR varied from 124 in the Birhore tribe of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, and the Bharias of Madhya Pradesh to 48 per 1000 live births in the Gamit tribe of Maharashtra. Similarly, the U5MR varied from the highest (203) in the Birhore tribe of Chhattisgarh to the lowest (57/1000 live births) in the Gamit tribe. The LEB varied from 72 years in the Gamit tribe of Maharashtra to 51 years in the Birhore tribe of Chhattisgarh. The study reveals that tribes have gross variation in child mortality rates and there is pressing need to prioritize tribe-specific action plans to improve their health indicators.

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Acknowledgments

Dr Aparup Das, Director, ICMR-National Institute of Research in Tribal Health, Jabalpur (MP) for his support and guidance. Prof Chander Shekhar, IIPS, Mumbai for his valuable suggestions to improve the quality of the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), National Institute of Research in Tribal Health, PO-Garha, Nagpur Road, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, 482 003, India

    Arvind Verma & Kalyan B. Saha

  2. ICMR-National Institute of Medical Statistics, New Delhi, India

    Ravendra K. Sharma

Authors
  1. Arvind Verma
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  2. Ravendra K. Sharma
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  3. Kalyan B. Saha
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Arvind Verma.

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Contributors

AV: Concept and design of study, data compilation and analysis, manuscript writing; RKS: Data analysis, literature review and manuscript writing; KBS: Data interpretation, manuscript writing and final editing. All authors have read final version of the manuscript.

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None

Competing interest

None stated.

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Verma, A., Sharma, R.K. & Saha, K.B. Diversity in Child Mortality and Life Expectancy at Birth Among Major Tribes in Selected States of India. Indian Pediatr 58, 20–24 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13312-021-2090-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13312-021-2090-0

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