The results of National Family Health Survey 5 (NFHS-5) indicates that Tamil Nadu has put itself back on track in improving several social and health indicators. In the previous edition, NFHS-4 (2015-16), the vaccination rate among children(12 to 23 months age) was only 69.7%, which has increased to 89.2% in the current assesment(2019-21).
The percentage of mothers who had atleast 4 antenatal check up has gone up to 89.9 from 81.1. The rate of institutional birth has also seen a marginal increase : a nearly 99.8% of child births were attended by skilled health personnels. The neo-natal and infant mortality rate have also seen a marginal decrease. However oddly, the rate of C-Section births has gone up from 34.1% to 44.9% drastically.
While talking about this, Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan has credited the nurses, ANMs and other field workers for the silver lining.
