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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Child marriages still rampant in North-Aarti Dhar

Child marriages still rampant in North-Aarti Dhar

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published Published on Jul 18, 2012   modified Modified on Jul 18, 2012
-The Hindu

Every fourth girl married in rural Rajasthan and every fifth girl married in rural Bihar and Jharkhand is less than 18 years -- this despite several measures taken by the government to check child marriages in the country. Only 50 per cent deliveries are considered safe in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh and just about 45 per cent children are fully immunised in Uttar Pradesh. The percentage of men getting married below the legal age of 21 is higher as compared to girls.

Only 20 of the 284 districts in these not-so-well-performing States have achieved the total fertility rate (TFR) -- the average number of children born to a woman during her entire reproductive span -- of 2.1, though there is a wide variation, with Uttarakhand and Orissa having a TFR of 2.3 and Uttar Pradesh and Bihar with 3.6 and 3.7. Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand has a TFR of 1.7, while in Shrawasti in Uttar Pradesh it is 5.9.

The district-level data contained in the Annual Health Survey (AHS) covering 8 empowered action group (EAG) States and Assam, released here, gave a broad picture of the low health indicators in these States, with Uttar Pradesh trailing on almost all indices, but Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand showing some improvement. The States for which the data was released are: Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Rajasthan and Assam and the figures were collected between 2007 and 2009.

Use of contraceptives

The mean age at marriage for girls varies from 19.7 in Rajasthan to 22 in Uttarakhand. The rural urban differential is huge in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) -- currently married women between 15-49 years using any method of contraception -- also varies from 37.6 per cent in Bihar to 64.5 per cent in Rajasthan. Over 98 districts have reported less than 50 per cent current usage of any method of family planning, and only 12 districts feature in the 70 per cent and above category. Thirty five districts of a total of 37 in Bihar have reported less than 50 per cent usage of contraceptives. Sitapur in U.P. have only 22 per cent of the couples using any method of family planning but Ganganagar in Rajasthan has close to 80 per cent, adopting some method of family planning.

“The data helps us make a clear analysis for intervention by the States,” Health Secretary P.K. Pradhan said. When it comes to antenatal care, it exceeds 80 per cent for the first check-up in all States but gradually comes down for all three check-ups.

As many as 94 districts reported less than 5-per-cent coverage of full antenatal care. Across 284 districts, less than one-per-cent coverage of the full ANC has been reported from Balrampur in Uttar Pradesh while the percentage touches 36 in Jagatsinghpur of Odisha. Balrampur also has the least number of women reporting institutional deliveries at 16.8 per cent, but the figure is impressively high at 92.5 per cent in Indore in Madhya Pradesh. Only 35 per cent women go for institutional deliveries in Chhattisgarh as compared to 85 per cent in Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. Jharkhand is the only State where more than 50 per cent births take place in private hospitals.

When in comes to safe deliveries, one-fourth of the districts have reported less than 50 per cent safe deliveries. Of the 14 districts reporting 90 per cent and above safe deliveries, 10 are from Madhya Pradesh. These nine States account for about 48 per cent of the total population, 59 per cent of total births, 70 per cent of infant deaths, 75 per cent of under-5 deaths and 62 per cent of maternal deaths in the country, Registrar-General and Census Commissioner of India C. Chandramouli said.

The Hindu, 18 July, 2012, http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article3651502.ece


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