Nagpur: A response to RTI query has revealed that Maharashtra State has registered decline in number of maternal, infant deaths and stillbirth cases. The statistics of the last five years show the decrease in the number of deaths though not drastic. There was a slight rise in the number of deaths in the year 2021-22.
According to experts, the number might have gone up in 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic where everybody’s focus was on COVID-19 patients. The details of the death statistics came to the fore in a query under the Right to Information (RTI) Act by activist Abhay Kolarkar.
Wenesday Rate
Wed 25 Dec. 2024
If the statistics of the last five years of maternal, infant deaths and stillbirths are taken into account, then one would find that 1,488 maternal deaths were reported in the financial year 2021-22 which is higher than the two previous years. The State witnessed 5,070 maternal deaths between the years 2020 and 2023 while 64,967 stillbirth cases have been recorded from 2019-20 to 2023.
In2019, the State reported 14,614 stillbirth cases while the number reduced to 8,463 in 2023. It kept decreasing from 2019 but there has been a rise in the number of such cases in 2021 to 14,296. Similarly, in maternal deaths, Nagpur registered 243 deaths from January to March 2020. The number rose to 1,488 in 2021. It kept reducing afterwards and finally in 2023, the number went down to 847.
Kolarkar sought statistics of the number of deaths of infants—up to one year and up to five years of age in Maharashtra. There is a highest number of deaths of children up to one year in 2019-20 — 14,014 – which dropped to 7,088 in 2024. Similarly, the number of child deaths (1-5 years of age) reported as 2,331 in 2019 which reduced to 1,247 in 2023.
