The district continues to grab international media attention for attack on Christians and missionary institutions has registered country’s highest infant mortality rate (IMR).
The New Delhi-based Population Foundation of India (PFI), in its publication Infant & child mortality in India: District level estimates, has maintained that IMR in Orissa’s Kandhamal district was 121 per 1000 live births.
Over 50% of population of this perennially backward district constitutes scheduled tribes of aboriginal tribal races.
The backward index of this backward spot may be gauged from the fact that about two-third of people here live below the poverty line and battle poverty and hunger.
Though this backward zone has 57 government-run hospitals, health services mostly remain out of bounds for poor tribal in remote hilly tracts as doctors skip official duty assigned to them.
Despite the launch of national rural health mission, IMR scenario has gone from bad to worse in Kandhmal, according to PFI publication. Of country’s 593 districts, Kottayam district in Kerala has the lowest 13 live birth IMR death. The national mortality average 1000 live birth stands at 54.
Among the states and union territories, Madhya Pradesh has the highest IMR (94) whereas Kerala has the lowest (18).
In case of child mortality rate, MP has the highest (102) while Kerala has the lowest (20). There is also gender differential with respect to infant mortality in some states.