LIFE EXPECTANCY INCREASES TO 68.7 YEARS VIJAYALAKSHMI RAJU BASICS OF LAW Fri, Nov 01, 2019, at ,05:35 AM Life expectancy in India has increased from 49.7 years in 1970-75 to 68.7 years in 2012-16, according to the 14th National Health Profile (NHP). The NHP is prepared by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI) and covers comprehensive information on demographic, socio-economic health status, health finance indicators, health infrastructure and health of human resources in the country. Quality data is important to understand the needs and issues of the population and helps strategize area-specific interventions, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on October 30, releasing the NHP. “It helps in understanding the goals, our strengths, and weaknesses and is also an important means to strategize area-specific interventions. Good quality data enables policymakers to make evidence-based policies and aids effective implementation of various schemes,” he said. Vardhan also suggested that this document should be highly disseminated so that more and more people who want to develop health interventions or programs can utilize this data and come up with unique solutions and policy suggestions. The 14th edition is the continuation of the publication of NHP since 2005. Health secretary Preeti Sudan said data is not only important for understanding the health indicators but it also provides an opportunity to monitor the situation. She said the National Health Profile 2019 indicates that significant progress has been made in the country for various health outcomes, which is an encouraging sign. HIGHLIGHTS The NHP highlights substantial health information under major indicators - demographic indicators (population and vital statistics), socio-economic indicators (education, employment, housing, and amenities, drinking water and sanitation) and health status indicators (incidence and prevalence of common communicable and non-communicable diseases, etc. The health finance section provides an overview of health insurance and expenditure on health, both public and out-of-pocket expenditure. The section on human resources provides an overview of the availability of manpower working in the health sector, while the health infrastructure section provides details of medical and dental colleges, AYUSH institutes, nursing courses, and paramedical courses. Life expectancy in India has increased from 49.7 years in 1970-75 to 68.7 years in 2012-16, as per the National Health Profile 2019. For the same period, life expectancy for females is 70.2 years and 67.4 years for males. On non-communicable diseases, the survey notes that out of 6.51 crore patients who attended NCD clinics, 4.75 percent were diagnosed with diabetes, 6.19 percent were diagnosed with hypertension, 0.30 percent were diagnosed with cardiovascular diseases, 0.10 percent were diagnosed with stroke and 0.26 percent were diagnosed with common cancers. According to the survey, the highest population density of 11,320 people per sq km was reported by the NCT of Delhi whereas Arunachal Pradesh has reported the lowest population density of 17. On demographics, the survey found the high incidence of the young and economically active population. The survey notes that 27 percent of the total estimated population of 2016 were below the age of 14 years and a majority (64.7 percent) of the population were in the age group of 15-59 years - economically active population - and 8.5 percent population were in the age group of 60 to 85 plus years. There has been a consistent decrease in the birth rate, death rate and natural growth rate in India from 1991 to 2017. As of 2017, India has registered a birth rate of 20.2 per 1,000 population and death rate of 6.3 per 1,000 population while the natural growth rate was 13.9 per 1,000 population in India. The birth rate in rural areas was higher than in urban areas. Similarly, the death rate and natural growth rate were also higher in rural areas as compared to the urban. The population, however, continues to grow, as the decline in the birth rate is not as rapid as the decline in the death rate. During 2015, 4.13 lakh people lost their lives due to accidental injuries and 1.33 lakh people died because of suicide. Suicide rates are increasing significantly among young adults and the maximum number of suicide cases (44,593) is reported between the age group of 30-45 years. The infant mortality rate has declined considerably (33 per 1,000 live births in 2016), however, differentials of rural (37) and urban (23) are still high. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) for the country was 2.3 whereas in rural areas it has been 2.5 and it has been 1.8 in urban areas during 2016 as per the latest available information. WHAT IS CBHI? The Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI), established in 1961 by the Act of Parliament on the recommendation of the Mudaliar Committee, is the health intelligence wing under Directorate General of Health Services. It collects primary as well as secondary data on various communicable and non-communicable diseases, human resources in the health sector and health infrastructure from various government organizations/ departments to maintain and disseminate health statistics through its annual publication National Health Profile.