Sandeep Mishra
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Feb 13: The state has consistently performed poorly in controlling the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) with its record of 74,078 infant and 3,656 maternal deaths in five years.
According to the family welfare department records, Bolangir has consistently performed worst in the state by recording about 5,614 infant deaths from 2009 to 2014 while Mayurbhanj has recorded 303 maternal mortalities in the same period.
Despite efforts of thousands of health workers, the state seems to be way behind in achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) set by the UN of recording MMR at 105 per one lakh women and IMR at 30 per 1,000 infants.
The Sample Registration Survey records revealed that Orissa’s IMR stood at 53 against the national rate of 42 whereas Under-5 Mortality Rate (U5MR) stood at 68 against 52 in India.
However, the MMR in the state stood at 235, which is a bit lower than the rates of other major states. Although the state shows light improvement in reducing the rate of IMR, U5MR and MMR, state officials have to work hard to achieve goals set by the UN.
“The state has shown consistently good performance in the field of IMR and MMR by recording descending mortality rate in the past five years. Health officials are trying to achieve the millennium development goal, but the results seem to be in deemed light,” said a senior official of the family welfare department.
