National Family Health Survey

Demography without a TFR obsession: Rethinking birth-rate solutions

Demography may be destiny, but the solutions do not lie in asking women to sacrifice more than they already have

Over 77% of India's children lack WHO-suggested diversity in diet: Study

About 77 per cent of children in India aged 6-23 months lack diversity in diet as suggested by the WHO, with the country's central region showing the highest prevalence of minimum dietary failure, a study has found. The states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh reported the highest levels of inadequate diversity in children's diets -- all above 80 per cent -- while Sikkim and Meghalaya were the only two to report an under-50 per cent prevalence. The World Health Organisation (WHO) suggests using the Minimum Dietary Diversity (MDD) score to evaluate the quality of a child's diet -- it is considered to be diverse if it contains five or more food groups, including breastmilk, eggs, legumes and nuts, and fruits and vegetables. Analysing National Family and Health Survey data from 2019-21 (NFHS-5), researchers, including those from the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, found that the country's overall rate of minimum dietary diversity ...

3% more babies with low birth weight born during pandemic in India: Study

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, number of babies in India born with a low birth weight rose sharply -- by about three per cent, a new study has found. Babies born during the pandemic were also found to be at double the risk of having a low weight at birth. The increase in babies born with a low weight could impact the development of "human capital" in the long term, as these infants are known to often "struggle with school", corresponding author Santosh Kumar, an associate professor of development and global health economics at the University of Notre Dame, US, said. "Children who have lower birth weight as infants often go on to struggle with school and this limits their capacity to develop what economists often call 'human capital' -- the key knowledge and skills that will affect their ability to earn a good living and support themselves and their families," Kumar said. Roughly one in every four babies (3 crore) around the world are born with a low weight, which the World Health ..

Anti-obesity drug market on steady growth path in India, shows data

The anti-obesity drugs' market had a sluggish growth till 2021, says Sheetal Sapale, vice-president, commercial, Pharmarack, a market research firm

Concerns over the sampling design of national surveys not tenable: Govt

NSS sampling design are not tenable, since the conclusions drawn have been based on the assessment of sampling design with faulty application inapplicable method/approach

Have more kids, PM Modi will build houses for them: Rajasthan minister

Rajasthan minister Babulal Kharadi has asked people to have more children, saying there should be no problem as Prime Minister Narendra Modi will build houses for them. Kharadi, the tribal area development minister in the desert state, said it is a dream of the prime minister that no one will go to sleep hungry and without a roof over their head. "It is a dream of the prime minister that no one should sleep hungry and without a roof over their head. You give birth to lots of children. Pradhan mantriji will build your houses, then what is the problem?" Kharadi asked while addressing a public meeting in Udaipur on Tuesday. Kharadi has eight children -- four sons and as many daughters -- from two wives. The entire family lives in Neechla Thala village, about three kilometres from Kotda tehsil of Udaipur. Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma shared the dais with the tribal area development minister on the occasion. The stage was set up for a "Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra camp" in Udaipur's

NFHS-6 launched, will not have disability-related questions: Centre

Centre said that based on data collection for a few parameters on disability in NFHS, it is not possible to adequately capture the all-India extent of disability and will underestimate its prevalence

Multidimensional poverty estimates: Is India measuring poverty accurately?

Multidimensional poverty index measures poverty on the basis of parameters such as nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, and maternal health, among others

Tackling poverty

Better job prospects will improve outcomes

140 million pulled out of poverty in India since 2015-16, says UNDP

Incidence of multidimensional poverty declined from 55.1% in 2005-06 to 16.4% in 2019-21

Women have more sex partners than men in 11 states/UTs: NFH Survey 2019-21

Women on average have more sex partners than men in 11 states and UTs but the percentage of men who had sexual intercourse with someone who was neither their spouse or lived with stood at 4 per cent, much higher than that of women at 0.5 per cent, according to the NFHS data. The National Family Health Survey which was conducted among 1.1 lakh women and 1 lakh men showed that the number of sex partners on average for women was higher than men in many states and Union territories. These states and UTs are Rajasthan, Haryana, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Puducherry, and Tamil Nadu. Rajasthan had the highest number of women who had on an average 3.1 sex partners as against the 1.8 for men. But the percentage of men who had sexual intercourse with someone who was neither their spouse or live-in partner, in the 12 months preceding the survey, stood at 4 per cent. For women, the number stood at 0.5 per cent. The National Family Health

Grave governance challenges await Bihar's new coalition government

Committed expenditures of the state, which has the lowest per capita income, exceed its own revenue by 47% in FY23

Women and the burden of birth control: New data tells the same old story

The fifth installment of NFHS revealed a surge in female sterilisations in 14 of India's 36 states and Union Territories

Rajasthan takes pole position for health insurance coverage: NFHS report

The National Family Health Survey-5 (2019-21) states 88 per cent of the households have at least one member covered by a health scheme or health insurance in Rajasthan

Explained: Can Droupadi Murmu help bridge Mayurbhanj's development gap?

Education, healthcare, access to basic facilities are lower than national average

Statsguru: New insights into the way Indians live found in NFHS edition

Nearly half of households own a two-wheeler compared to less than 10 per cent that own a car

Top headlines: Railways-coal sector rift continues, 5G phones for Rs 10,000

Business Standard brings you the top headlines at this hour.

Health insurance coverage up in India but not robust yet, says NFHS

In case of illness, households tilt slightly in favour of the public sector in seeking care compared to the private sector

Mandaviya releases 5th family health report, improved sanitation witnessed

Between NFHS-4 and NFHS-5, the use of clean cooking fuel (44% to 59%) and improved sanitation facilities (49% to 70%), including a hand-washing facility with soap and water (60% to 78%) have improved

As many kids die before their 5th birthday in UP as in Afghanistan: Report

Child mortality rates in several Indian states is similar to that of strife-torn countries