India’s Female Infant Mortality Rate Drops To Same Level As Male

As per the 2020 data, the infant mortality rate (IMR) finally took India out of being the only country with a higher female infant mortality rate than male as it dropped to the same level as the latter. The infant mortality rate is the number of infant deaths for every 1,000 live births.

Although in 16 states, the IMR remained higher for female than male babies, the gap has reduced since the 2011 data. Though the gap has reduced in rural India, the female infant mortality rate remained marginally higher than the male. While in urban India, the gap has reduced drastically as the female IMR fell below that of the males, which was higher back in 2011.

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The states that showed a drastic change include Kerala where the girls’ IMR is one-third of the boys’ with female IMR 10:3 male IMR, Madhya Pradesh- 44:43, Haryana- 29:27, West Bengal 20:18, Gujarat- 24:21, Himachal Pradesh 23: 12, bringing overall India’s ratio to 28:28.

In 2011, all states in India had higher female IMR than males except Uttarakhand where the ratio was equal. The SRS Statistical Report for 2020 showed that five states including the national capital have the same IMR for both males and females. It also showed that the IMR for females was lower than for males in eight states.

However, in 2020, Chhattisgarh has the highest gap with a female infant mortality rate of 41 compared to 35 male IMR, which fell from 48 to 38. It is one of the very few states where the gap between the female and male IMR has increased from 2011 to 2020. Bihar, Assam, and Karnataka belong to the states where the gap has reduced in the latest survey.

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Comparing the 2011 data which had higher female IMR than males in rural India compared to the urban area in states like Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Maharashtra, the 2020 data saw a reverse in this trend in most of these states.

The 2020 UN data shows that among countries with IMR above 20, India was the only country in the world with a larger population of female babies under one-year-old that died than male infants.

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