NFHS-5 Survey

In News

• Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has recently released the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) Report.

Key Finding of the Report

• Under Age marriage:
  • According to the fifth round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS) the national average of underage marriages has come down.
  • 23.3% women got married before attaining the legal age of 18 years from 26.8% reported in NFHS-4. The figure for underage marriage among men is 17.7% (NFHS-5) from 20.3% (NFHS-4).
• Exceptions: 

• However, the rate has increased in 5 states Punjab, West Bengal, Manipur, Tripura and Assam.

• Top performing: 
  • Underage marriages are lowest in J&K, Lakshadweep, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Nagaland, Kerala, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu, according to NFHS-5.

• Highest surge: 
  • Tripura witnessed the biggest surge in marriages under the legal age of 18 years for women from 33.1% (NFHS-4) to 40.1%, and from 16.2% to 20.4% among men.
• Highest rate:
  • West Bengal and Bihar have the highest rate of underage marriages.
  • Bihar saw a marginal decrease from 42.5% (NFHS-4) to 40.8% (NFHS-5) and 35.3% for women and to 30.5% for men.
• Teenage pregnancy and contraceptive use: 
  • Teenage pregnancies came down from 7.9% to 6.8%. As per report, women who are employed are more likely to use modern contraception.
  • Report noted that contraceptive use has increased in communities and regions that have seen more socioeconomic progress and also with increase in income levels.
  • The contraceptive prevalence rate has increased to 67 percent from 54 percent.
• Family planning: 
  • The data shows that lack of family planning is highest among the poorest 11.4 percent of the population and lowest among the wealthiest 8.6%.
• Domestic violence: 
  • It came down from 31.2% in 2015-16 to 29.3% in 2019-21.
• Total Fertility Rate: 
  • i.e. average number of children per woman has declined from 2.2 (NFHS-4) to 2.0 at the national level.
  • Now, only five states are above the replacement level of fertility of 2.1. These are Bihar (2.98), Meghalaya (2.91), Uttar Pradesh (2.35), Jharkhand (2.26) Manipur (2.17).
• Institutional births: 
  • Increased from 79% to 89%. For rural areas it is 87% and 94% for urban areas.
• Increase in obesity: 
  • Obesity has increased from 21% to 24% among women and 19% to 23% among men.
• Women Empowerment:
  • Their participation in major decisions of the household increased substantially. It is 77 percent for rural areas and 81 percent for urban areas.
  • Women having bank or savings accounts increased to 79 percent from 53 percent in the past four years.
• Cooking fuel and sanitation:
  • Usage of clean cooking fuel improved to 59 percent from 44 percent.
  • Sanitation facilities improved to 70 percent from 49 percent.

About NFHS-5

• The NFHS-5 survey was conducted in around 6.37 lakh sample households from 707 districts of the country from 28 States and 8 UTs.
• The NFHS-5 data showed an overall improvement in SDG indicators in all States/UTs.
• The NFHS-5 has captured the data from 2019-20. There was a delay in the report because of the Covid-19.
• Novelty in the 5^th round of the survey: It included new focal areas this time:
  • expanded domains of child immunization
  • components of micro-nutrients to children,
  • menstrual hygiene,
  • frequency of alcohol and tobacco use,
  • additional components of non-communicable diseases (NCDs),
  • expanded age ranges for measuring hypertension and diabetes among all, aged 15 years and above, for strengthening existing programmes and evolving new strategies for policy intervention.

Source: TH