National infant mortality rate reduces to forty-seven

New Delhi, Feb 1 (ANI): The Sample Registration System (SRS) bulletin, December 2011 released by the Registrar General of India (RGI), has recorded a drop of three points in the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) from 50 to 47 infants deaths per 1000 live births during 2010.

The IMR for rural areas has dropped by four points from 55 to 51 infant deaths per 1000 live births while the urban rate now stands at 31 from the previous 34/1000.

Goa still has the lowest IMR of 10 infant deaths followed by Kerala with 13 infant deaths per 1000 live births (as against 12/1000 in January 2011 figures) - the Urban IMR in Kerala has however reduced to 10 against 11 of previous figures.

Madhya Pradesh, on the other hand has the highest IMR of 62/1000 followed by UP and Odisha with 61/1000 IMR. States/UTs of Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Meghalaya still have IMRs more than the national average of 47.

The Sample Registration System (SRS) is a large-scale demographic survey for providing reliable annual estimates of birth rate, death rate and other fertility and mortality indicators at the national and sub-national levels. The field investigation consists of continuous enumeration of births and deaths in selected sample units by resident part time enumerators, generally anganwadi workers and teachers, and an independent survey every six months by SRS supervisors (ANI)