Kohima: Statistics can often be deceiving. Take the infant mortality rate, for example. Between 2014 and 2018, India’s overall IMR fell from 39 to 32. However, Nagaland not only outperformed all-India numbers, but it also outperformed Kerala too. Nagaland’s number fell from 12 to just 4 during this period, the best in the country.
But it seems while Nagaland’s IMR is excellent, the same cannot be said for the period after their birth.
Even as Nagaland launched the “first 1000 days” agenda on Thursday in Kohima, health officials have painted a grim picture of the state’s public health. The officials said the state has the lowest coverage in antenatal care (ANC), hospital delivery, and vaccination in the country.
The ‘first 1,000 days’ refers to the time between conception (270 days) and the first two years of life (730 days). This period lays the foundations for optimum health, growth, and neurodevelopment for the child’s future development.
As per data provided by state health officials, 50% of pregnant women in Nagaland get ANC checkups in three months, but only 21% complete four ANC checkups. The data also showed that only 46% of deliveries are done in hospitals.
Kikheto Sema, Commissioner and Secretary of State Health and Family Welfare, said the state had failed miserably in antenatal care. The health secretary, while addressing the gathering at Hotel De Oriental Grand Kohima, urged the need for increased awareness in this regard as the first 1,000 days lay the foundation of a child’s future.
Some reasons why the state has low coverage, he observed, is due to traditional beliefs that there is no need for hospital delivery or ANC check-up and vaccination, and the lack of awareness. He recommended a convergence of private and public sectors, churches, civil society organisations, villages and so on to create awareness around it.
Health minister P Paiwang Konyak said parents and families are expected to have good knowledge about the 1,000 days of a child’s life and utilise this knowledge for the betterment of the child’s future. “This knowledge will also help the parents about good child-upbringing practices which will improve the thinking and stimulate the brain development of a child and thereby reach their full potential,” he said.
He informed that critical interventions or services like Antenatal Care, hospital delivery, timely vaccination, and so on, are all available in the government health facilities and also during the observation of village health and nutrition days. Konyak also encouraged all district health officers led by the CMO to be committed to the noble cause to ensure that all the services reach the last villages of Nagaland.
“Our state immunisation percentage stands at 58 even as it was supposed to be 75% for hilly terrain states like ours to avail additional funds for the health providers,” he said.
Konyak urged women’s societies, churches, civil societies and village councils to also assist the ASHA workers to ensure that the targeted beneficiaries are reached as the ice-packed box carrying vaccines has to be administered within 24 hours.
He also informed that the department is working on a pilot project on “Birth Waiting Home” at Mon and Kiphire districts to encourage institutional delivery under the care of skilled health providers and the safety of the mother and child to reduce morbidity and mortality.
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Blood storage facilities in 13 districts, he said, are non-functional at the moment but will be activated at the earliest possible time to ensure that no mother dies of excessive bleeding or for want of blood during delivery. He directed the three blood banks in Kohima, Dimapur and Mokokchung to make blood available at all times. Launching the first 1000 days, he urged all to make an honest commitment to ensure that children in the state get all the possible support.
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