NEW DELHI: Six of India’s 21 largest states registered a decline in Health indicators between 2014-15 and 2015-16 though most improved, a Niti Aayog report ranking states on health parameters showed. While those slipping included top ranked Kerala, what was worrying was that they also included Haryana and Uttarakhand, which were already quite low in the rankings.
Uttar Pradesh was the worst performer among the 21 states as per the Aayog’s Health Index Rankings. Kerala, unsurprisingly, was on top followed by Punjab and Tamil Nadu. The good news for UP was that it was among the three most improved states, though still at the bottom. Jharkhand and J&K registered even better improvements in their scores, but Jharkhand still remained in the bottom half of the rankings at No.14, while Jammu & Kashmir was ranked 7 .
The poor show on overall ranking and slow pace of improvement on the health front reflects the massive challenge before UP chief minister Yogi Aditya Nath, who came to power in March 2017, to push the state machinery into action to catch up with performers on critical heath parameters.
The performance of states was judged on health outcomes from base year (2014-15) to reference year (2015-16) on indicators such as neonatal mortality rate, under-five mortality rate, full immunisation coverage, institutional deliveries and people living with HIV on anti-retroviral therapy. The ranking is a weighted composite index based on indicators in three domains – health outcomes (70% weightage), governance and information (12%), and key inputs and processes (18%).
The ‘Healthy States, Progressive India’ report noted that states that started at lower levels of development were generally at an advantage in notching incremental progress over states with high health index scores. “It is a challenge for states with high index scores to even maintain their performance levels,” it said. In that context, Punjab’s performance was creditable as it jumped three places to knock Tamil Nadu off from second place.
Ranking was done in three categories – larger states, smaller states and Union Territories – to ensure comparison among similar entities. Source : timesofindia