National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) 2019-21: Jharkhand

In Jharkhand, 76 per cent of the households were in rural areas. As low as 43 per cent of households lived in a pucca house but 94 per cent of the households had access to electricity.

Of all households surveyed, 76 per cent owned a house, and 55 per cent owned agricultural land. About 82 per cent of households in Jharkhand had basic drinking water services and 55 per cent had access to basic sanitation facilities.

The overall sex ratio in Jharkhand was 1,050 females per 1,000 males. On the other hand, the sex ratio of the population under seven years of age was 909 females per 1,000 males.

The report states that 91 per cent of people in Jharkhand had an Aadhaar card. As high as 96 per cent of households had a bank or post office account while 58 per cent of households had BPL cards.

Men were more likely to have any disability as compared to women – 0.8 per cent of all men in Jharkhand had a disability as opposed to 0.5 per cent of all women. Almost two per cent of household members (aged 70 years and above) reported having a disability.

In Jharkhand, 62 per cent of women and 81 per cent of men (aged 15-49 years) were literate. About 32 per cent of women and 14 per cent of men in the same age group have never been to school. Further, only 19 per cent of women have completed 12 or more years of schooling, compared to 29 per cent of men.

Around 74.4 per cent of women and 21.2 per cent of men (aged 15-49 years) had not been employed in the 12 months preceding the survey.

In Jharkhand, about 19 per cent each of boys and girls aged 2-4 years attended preschool. School attendance for children aged 6-17 years was almost 85 per cent in the state – 91 per cent in urban and 83 per cent in rural areas.

The median age at first marriage was noted to be 18.4 years among women aged 25-29 years and 18.2 years among women aged 20-49 years. Roughly 32 per cent of women (aged 20-24 years) had married before reaching the legal minimum age of 18 years. This was a decrease from the NFHS-4 estimates of 38 per cent.

The total fertility rate in Jharkhand (for women aged 15-49 years) was 2.3 children per woman – 1.6 children per woman in urban areas and 2.5 children per woman in rural areas.

Among mothers who gave birth in the five years before the survey, eight out of 10 mothers received antenatal care for their last birth from a health professional. Around 43 per cent received antenatal care from a doctor and 36 per cent received care from an auxiliary nurse midwife, a lady health visitor, a nurse or a midwife.

The infant mortality rate in Jharkhand was estimated at 38 deaths (before the age of one year) per 1,000 live births. This number has decreased from the NFHS-4 estimate of 44 deaths per 1,000 live births.

About 74 per cent of children (aged 12-23 months) received all basic vaccinations against six major childhood illnesses – tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, and measles. Only about 3.8 per cent of children in the state had not received any vaccinations at all.

In Jharkhand, the percentage of children who are stunted (too short for their age) declined from 45 per cent during NFHS-4 to 40 percent during NFHS-5. During the same time, the percentage of children who were wasted (too thin for their height) also fell from 29 per cent to 22 per cent. The report also states that 67 per cent of children (aged 6-59 months) in Jharkhand were anaemic.

Only 50 per cent of households in Jharkhand have health insurance or financing scheme which covers at least one member of the household.

As low as 14 per cent of women and 31 per cent of men in Jharkhand have “comprehensive knowledge” about HIV/AIDS, the report states.

Of the women (aged 18-49 years) surveyed in the state, 30 per cent had suffered physical violence while seven per cent had ever experienced sexual violence. Only nine per cent of women who had suffered physical or sexual violence sought help, 12 percent never sought help but told someone and as high as 78 per cent of such women never sought help or told anyone.

Focus and Factoids by Adrija Bhadra.

PARI Library's health archive project is part of an initiative supported by the Azim Premji University to develop a free-access repository of health-related reports relevant to rural India.