New Delhii: The number of teen mothers is declining in India, according to a national survey.
The data collected from the fourth National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) shows that the proportion of women aged 15 to 19 years who were mothers or were pregnant, decreased by an average of 5.26 percentage points over a decade.
The report, which was released in January, is based on 114 questions posed to over 500,000 households across the country. Data for 13 states and two union territories was released in the first phase.
IndiaSpend earlier indicated a direct correlation between the rate of female literacy and child marriage rate. Increase in child-bearing age implies better maternal and child health outcomes.
The worst states are Tripura, West Bengal, Bihar, Meghalaya, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and the undivided Andhra Pradesh.
IndiaSpend’s three part series reported that Tripura and Meghalaya cannot be compared to the other states since northeastern Indian states are different in topography, demographics and infrastructure.
Among the large states, Bihar saw the biggest decrease in young mothers. Their number dropped from 25 percent in 2005-2006 (during NFHS-3) to 12.2 percent in 2014-2015. There was a corresponding decrease in the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR; deaths per 1,000 live-births) from 61 to 28, reports thenortheastdaily.com.
According to an IndiaSpend analysis, even a marginal decrease has a substantial impact on IMR. Other reasons for the decrease in IMR are pre-natal care and institutional deliveries.
The survey also showed urban areas have a lesser percentage of teenage mothers than rural areas. However, the gap between the urban and rural figures has reduced over the decade in most states.
West Bengal currently has the largest rural-urban gap (8.2 percentage points) and also has the highest percentage of teenage mothers in both rural and urban areas, at 20.6 percent and 12.4 and respectively.