High Premature Birth rate India: WHO report
The Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), Shri Faggan Singh Kulaste has stated in a written reply in the Lok Sabha about the WHO report on the premature birth rate in India.
As per WHO Publication in the year 2012, titled, “Born too Soon: The Global Action Report on Preterm Birth” 13 % of all the births in India are estimated to be pre-term. As per the available estimates 33.4 lakh pre-term babies were born in India in 2015 and this contributes to 22% of the world’s preterm births.
Various interventions are being implemented under the Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) programme of the National Health Mission of the Government of India to tackle among other things, preterm births.
The state wise allocation and expenditure of funds under the RCH programme, including the State of West Bengal for the period 2015-16 are given below:
| S.No. | State | 2015-16 | |
| Approved | Exp | ||
| A. High Focus States | |||
| 1 | Bihar | 98206.11 | 74567 |
| 2 | Chhattisgarh | 33693.26 | 22655.33 |
| 3 | Himachal Pradesh | 8266.63 | 5946.47 |
| 4 | Jammu & Kashmir | 25873.85 | 20150.55 |
| 5 | Jharkhand | 43130.69 | 24514.18 |
| 6 | Madhya Pradesh | 92524.01 | 76025.88 |
| 7 | Orissa | 41393.14 | 35027.43 |
| 8 | Rajasthan | 70887.54 | 49154.08 |
| 9 | Uttar Pradesh | 151734.33 | 101974.58 |
| 10 | Uttarakhand | 12414.31 | 11616.46 |
| B. NE States | |||
| 11 | Arunachal Pradesh | 5295.48 | 3811.64 |
| 12 | Assam | 61626.52 | 51374.93 |
| 13 | Manipur | 4671.8 | 3024.75 |
| 14 | Meghalaya | 5811.21 | 4479.64 |
| 15 | Mizoram | 4758.27 | 3400.05 |
| 16 | Nagaland | 4396.44 | 3211.68 |
| 17 | Sikkim | 1680.04 | 1201.68 |
| 18 | Tripura | 4141.76 | 2697.71 |
| C. Non-High Focus States | |||
| 19 | Andhra | 32133.43 | 29786.21 |
| 20 | Goa | 1425.25 | 606.63 |
| 21 | Gujarat | 37067.58 | 28808.14 |
| 22 | Haryana | 20667.03 | 16385.03 |
| 23 | Karnataka | 41345 | 27773.67 |
| 24 | Kerala | 16181.48 | 13881.16 |
| 25 | Maharashtra | 63169.16 | 44521.79 |
| 26 | Punjab | 17876.56 | 15018.92 |
| 27 | Tamil Nadu | 48208.17 | 41189.82 |
| 28 | Telangana | 24750.97 | 17536.98 |
| 29 | West Bengal | 66054.84 | 55012.51 |
| D. Small States/UTs | |||
| 30 | Andaman & Nicobar | 1234.69 | 666.01 |
| 31 | Chandigarh | 1143.97 | 813.58 |
| 32 | Dadra & Nagar Haveli | 1092.06 | 712.45 |
| 33 | Daman | 705.18 | 516.34 |
| 34 | Delhi | 6060.82 | 3531.2 |
| 35 | Lakshadweep | 429.98 | 51.54 |
| 36 | Puducherry | 951.14 | 627.37 |
| Grand Total | 1051002.7 | 792273.39 | |
