National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) 2019-20 Union Territory Fact Sheet: Lakshadweep

FOCUS

Since 1992, the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, has conducted the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. The NFHS report for 2019-21 is the fifth in this series. It provides information on population, health and nutrition in 28 states, eight union territories, and 707 districts of India. The survey was released in phases due to delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

NFHS-5 presents district-level data on indicators such as population, fertility, family planning, infant and child mortality, maternal and child health, domestic violence and disability. This fact sheet on Lakshadweep was released on December 12, 2020. Society for Promotion of Youth and Masses, New Delhi, conducted the fieldwork for the report between December 1, 2019, and January 15, 2020. It covered 921 households, 1,234 women (aged 15-49 years) and 135 men (aged 15-54 years).

This seven-page document presents data on 131 indicators across 21 sections: Population and Household Profile (Section 1); Characteristics of Adults (Section 2); Marriage and Fertility (Section 3); Infant and Child Mortality Rates (Section 4); Current Use of Family Planning Methods (Section 5); Unmet Need for Family Planning (Section 6); Quality of Family Planning Services (Section 7); Maternity Care (Section 8); Delivery Care (Section 9); Child Vaccinations and Vitamin A Supplementation (Section 10); Treatment of Childhood Diseases (Section 11); Child-Feeding Practices and Nutritional Status of Children (Section 12); Nutritional Status of Adults (Section 13); Anaemia among Children and Adults (Section 14); Blood Sugar Level among Adults (Section 15); Hypertension among Adults (Section 16); Screening for Cancer among Adults (Section 17); Knowledge of HIV/AIDS among Adults (Section 18); Women’s Empowerment (Section 19); Gender-Based Violence (Section 20); and Tobacco Use and Alcohol Consumption among Adults (Section 21).

    FACTOIDS

  1. Of the total people surveyed in Lakshadweep, 99.8 per cent lived in households with access to electricity.

  2. Only 86.7 per cent of the population in rural areas of the union territory had access to an improved source of drinking water compared to 94.6 per cent in urban areas. According to the fact sheet, almost all of the people surveyed (99.8 per cent) were part of households using improved sanitation facilities.

  3. In Lakshadweep, around 60 per cent of households had at least one member covered under a health insurance or financing scheme. The number was higher in rural areas (66.7 per cent) than in urban areas (58.4 per cent).

  4. About 59.4 per cent of the households in the union territory used clean fuel (electricity, liquefied petroleum gas, natural gas or biogas) for cooking – 68.5 per cent in urban areas and 24.7 per cent in rural areas.

  5. According to the fact sheet, 98.6 per cent of men in Lakshadweep were literate compared to 95.2 per cent of women (both aged 15-49 years). Respondents were considered literate if they had finished education till Class 9 and higher or if they were able to read a complete sentence or a part of it.

  6. Among women aged 20-24 years, around 1.3 per cent had married before reaching the legal minimum age of 18 years. This was a slight decrease from NFHS-4 figures of 1.9 per cent.

  7. The total fertility rate in Ladakh was recorded as 1.4 children per woman in NFHS-5, a fall from the estimate of 1.8 children per woman reported in NFHS-4.

  8. Use of contraceptive methods among married women in Lakshadweep increased from 29.7 per cent in NFHS-4 to 52.6 per cent in NFHS-5. Around 30.1 per cent of married women (aged 15-49 years) used modern methods of contraception such as sterilisation, intrauterine devices, pills, injectables or condoms.

  9. In the five years before the survey, 99.6 per cent of mothers had an antenatal check-up in the first trimester, a rise from the 90.6 per cent reported in NFHS-4. Further, 92.6 per cent of mothers in the union territory received postnatal care from a health personnel within two days of delivery – 97.8 per cent in rural areas and 90.7 per cent in urban areas.

  10. As many as 99.6 per cent of deliveries in the five years prior to the survey were institutional deliveries. Overall, 65.3 per cent of institutional deliveries happened in public facilities – 56.3 per cent in urban areas and 92 per cent in rural areas.

  11. In the union territory, 32 per cent of children under the age of five years were stunted (too short for their age), an increase since the NFHS-4 numbers of 26.8 per cent. The percentage of children who were wasted (too thin for their height) also rose from 13.7 per cent in NFHS-4 to 17.4 per cent in NFHS-5.

  12. As high as 43.1 per cent of children between the ages of 6-59 months were anaemic in Lakshadweep – 36.1 per cent in rural areas and 45.5 per cent in urban areas. Among people aged 15-49 years, 25.8 per cent of women and 5.6 per cent of men also suffered from anaemia. However, the figures had fallen drastically since NFHS-4.

  13. The percentage of men and women (aged 15-49 years) having ‘comprehensive’ knowledge of HIV/AIDS grew between NFHS-4 and NFHS-5. About 47 per cent of women and 65 per cent of men had comprehensive knowledge of HIV/AIDS, up from 22 per cent and 31.2 per cent respectively.

  14. The percentage of women who reported experiencing violence from their spouse decreased from 8.9 per cent in NFHS-4 to 1.3 per cent in NFHS-5. The percentage of women (18-29 years) who experienced sexual violence before the age of 18 years also fell from 2.5 per cent to 0.8 per cent during the same period.


    Focus and Factoids by Yazhini Sathiamoorthy.

     

    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.

AUTHOR

International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai

COPYRIGHT

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, New Delhi

PUBLICATION DATE

12 Dec, 2020

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