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Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Chhattisgarh have an infant mortality rate –infants who die before turning one– of over 40, says a report which further noted that these four states are part of the seven states where the pace of decline is slowing.

On the positive side, infant mortality rate or IMR came down to 30 (for every 1,000 childbirths) in 2019, says a report in the Business Standard, quoting a new Sample Registration Survey (SRS) data. It was 44 in 2011 and 50 a decade ago, it added. As many as 13 states have a higher IMR than 25, a target India has set for itself.

Decline in urban areas faster

For the five years between 2015 and 2019, infant mortality rate came down to 18.9 %, the report said, adding that the rate of decline was 15.9% between 2011-15. As many as 14 states saw lower growth than average.

It also noted that the pace of decline in urban areas was faster than in rural places. While infant mortality in urban areas had declined 13.8%  between 2011 and 2015, it was 14.6%  in rural India in the same perod.

The rate of decline in rural areas in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh had halved compared to 2011-15. In Madhya Pradesh’s rural places infant mortality was 50 against national average was 34, the report said.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) 4 million infants (75% of all under-five deaths) occurred within the first year of life.

The risk of a child dying before completing the first year of age was the highest in WHO African region (52 per 1,000 live births), over seven times higher than that in the WHO European Region (7 per 1,000 live births).

Globally, the infant mortality rate has decreased from an estimated rate of 65 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 29 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2018. Annual infant deaths have declined from 8.7 million in 1990 to 4.0 million in 2018.