Assam records highest infant mortality rate & Mizoram lowest among the 8 states of Northeast

May 28: Among the Northeastern states, Assam has the highest Infant Mortality Rate at 36, followed by Meghalaya at 29 and Arunachal Pradesh at 21, according to the Sample Registration System (SRS) bulletin 2020 published by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India recently. With the new distinction, Mizoram has reported the lowest IMR in the country for two consecutive years since 2019, the bulletin said.

According to data, Assam recorded 36 deaths per thousand live births. The national average of IMR for the year 2020 was 28, it said. Madhya Pradesh has the highest IMR at 43. The Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), which is widely accepted as a crude indicator of the overall health scenario of a country or a region, is defined as the infant deaths (less than one year) per thousand live births in a given time period and for a given region.

The Sample Registration System (SRS) is a large-scale demographic survey for providing reliable annual estimates of Infant mortality rate, birth rate, death rate and other fertility & mortality indicators at the national and sub-national levels. This Bulletin presents the estimates of Birth Rate, Death Rate, Natural Growth Rate and Infant Mortality Rate (IMR).