Indian women much better placed than before: Survey

The summary findings of the fifth round of the National Family and Health Survey (NFHS-5) that was released by the Union Health Ministry on Wednesday has come as a much-needed encouragement for Government of India, which has been focusing on improving the socioeconomic-health parameters of the country.

The survey has brought positive news, especially on parameters related to improvement in the lives of women. More women are now operating bank accounts, using mobile phones, internet, family planning methods, hygienic methods during menstrual period and owning houses in their names than previously.

Among the multiple findings, spread across several parameters impacting the life of a common man and woman, the NFHS has found that the sex ratio of India (females per 1,000 males) is now 1,020. This was 991 in 2015-12016 when the previous survey was done. More encouragingly, this is 1,037 in the rural areas.

The survey was conducted in two phases between 2019 and 2021. The NFHS is the most comprehensive survey on socio-economic and health indicators in the country. The phase one survey was done from 17 June 2019 to 30 January 2020, while phase two was conducted from 2 January 2020 to 30 April 2021 by 17 field agencies and gathered information from 636,699 households, 724,115 women and 101,839 men.

As per the findings, the percentage of female population constituting 6 years and above who ever attended school was 71.8%, which was 68.8% in the previous survey. The country saw a significant jump in people registering birth with civic bodies. It was found to be 89.1%, a figure which was 79.7% previously. The percentage of households with electricity, which was 88% in the last survey, rose to 96.8% this time. Similarly, people living in households with improved drinking water sources were found to be 95.9%, while 70.2% of the population was using improved sanitation facilities in their households, a figure which was 48.5% in the last survey.

The country also saw a rise of nearly 14% in the category of households with any usual member covered under a health insurance/financing scheme. This was found to be 41% in the present survey,