- NITI Aayog released the Health Index 2019. This is the second edition of the report named “Healthy States, Progressive India”. The first edition of the report was released in 2018. The report analyses the annual performance of Indian States and Union Territories. On the basis of the analysis, the report ranks all the States and UTs taking into consideration their health outcomes and overall performance.
- This ranking has been given under three categories -- larger states, smaller states and Union territories (UTs). The division of categories is made to ensure the similar states are being compared. There are 21 larger, 8 smaller and 8 Union Territories for comparison.
- The Index uses 23 indicators to calculate the composite index score and generate overall performance ranks and incremental ranks of the States and UTs. All these indicators are grouped in three domains namely - Health Outcomes, Governance and Information, and Key Inputs/Processes.
- The second edition of the NITI Aayog Health Index took the year 2015-16 as the base year and 2017-18 as the reference year. So, the performance of the states has been analyzed between these years in the index.
Findings of the NITI Aayog Health Index-
- According to the report, Kerala came out as the top ranking state in terms of overall health performance for the second time. Kerala topped the index in 2018 also.
- Uttar Pradesh is the worst state in terms of overall health performance. Bihar is on the second last position in the ranking of 21 larger states.
- Haryana, Rajasthan and Jharkhand has been ranked as the top three ranking States in terms of annual incremental performance.
- Other than this, the report ranked Gujarat on fourth, Punjab on fifth and Himachal Pradesh on sixth place.
- The report found that Haryana, Rajasthan and Jharkhand have showed the maximum improvement in health outcomes from base to reference year in indicators such as Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR), institutional deliveries, full immunization coverage, Under-5 Mortality Rate (U5MR), Low Birth Weight among New-borns and People Living with HIV (PLHIV) on Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART), etc.
- Mizoram has been ranked first among Smaller States. Mizoram is followed by Manipur on overall performance.
- Manipur is the top ranked State in terms of annual incremental performance. It is followed by Tripura in terms of annual incremental performance.
- Chandigarh and Dadra & Nagar Haveli have been ranked as top UTs in terms of both overall performance as well as annual incremental performance. Chandigarh is the top UT in terms of both overall performance followed by Dadra and Nagar Haveli. In terms of annual incremental performance, Dadra and Nagar Haveli is the top UT followed by Chandigarh.
Quick Facts-
- This report was jointly released by the NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare Secretary Preeti Sudan, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Dr. Rajiv Kumar and Member NITI Aayog Dr. VKPaul.
- Other than this, the report has been developed by NITI Aayog, along with the technical assistance of the World Bank, and in consultation with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).
