Times
of India: Nagpur: Wednesday, 30 September 2015.
Nagpur city's
may be emerging as healthcare hub of Central India but this reputation is at
odds with 11,512 infant and neonatal deaths recorded in city from 2012 to 2015.
The figure was revealed by Nagpur Municipal Corporation's birth and death
registration department in response to a RTI query by activist Abhay Kolarkar.
The worst
year was 2013, when the city registered as many as 1,900 neonatal and 1,765
infants deaths. The latest data with NMC underline the enormity of the
situation that the government health officials say is largely owing to high
incidence of anaemia affecting mothers and children. The situation is despite
the city having good medical facilities. The death of babies in 0-1 year age
bracket is also significant. In 2012, as many as 1,768 infants died. In 2013,
the figure was 1,765 while in 2014 it was 1,712. It was 1,133 up to July this
year.
Even number
of still births at 5,135 in the last three and a half years is considered high.
In 2013, there were 1900 still births, which was a huge jump from 624 just a
year before. In 2014, 1,735 still births were recorded while in the current
year (till July), the figure is 875.
Ranjana Lade,
the department in charge, stated that the civic body had earned Rs30.72 lakh
revenue while issuing death and birth certificates during last four years.
Statistics
show about 2% annual rise in number of births of both boys and girls since
2012. In 2012, the NMC issued birth certificates to 28,659 (boys) and 26,756
(girls) while it increased to 29,496 and 27,687 respectively in 2013. In 2014,
the figures were 30,062 and 28,118 while till July 2015, the figures were
15,747 (boys) and 15,064 (girls).
Despite
repeated attempts, NMC's health officer Dr Savita Meshram was not available for
comments while city based gynaecologist and past IMA President Dr Warsha Dhawle
expressed concern over the figures. Dr Dhawle pointed out that neonatal deaths
could be checked if pregnant women took proper treatment and had proper food.
Similar is the case with infant deaths, she said adding that the children
remained vulnerable until they crossed three years of age. Proper vaccination
and diets too helped in bringing infant mortality down, she added.
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