National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) 2015-16: Andhra Pradesh

The households surveyed had an average of four members. Women headed 15 per cent of all households, which accounted for 11 per cent of the population.

Around 24 per cent of the Andhra Pradesh’s population was under the age of 15; only 8 per cent was 65 or above.

The overall sex ratio was 1,020 females per 1,000 males. However, the sex ratio of the under-7 population was 874 females per 1,000 males.

99 per cent of all households had electricity and 73 per cent used an ‘improved source of drinking water’. Only 21 per cent of all households had piped water in their dwellings; 36 per cent of these were urban and 14 per cent were rural.

95 per cent of children in the 6-14 age group attended school, and there was no disparity in the attendance of girls and boys. In the 15-17 age group though, overall school attendance was 73 per cent; 70 per cent of girls and 76 per cent of boys went to school.

Only 18 per cent of women (aged 15-49) had completed 12 or more years of schooling compared to 31 per cent of men (aged 15-54).

The median age of the first marriage in AP was 18.1 years for women (aged 20-49) and 24.3 years for men (aged 25-49 years). A third of these women and 16 per cent of these men were married before the legal minimum age of 18 and 21, respectively.

The fertility rate of 1.8 children per woman was below replacement levels. Among women aged 15-19, 12 per cent had begun childbearing, that is, they’d had a live birth or were pregnant with their first child. Young women with no schooling were six times as likely to have begun childbearing as those with 12 or more years of schooling.

Around 46 per cent of men thought contraception was ‘women’s business’. 70 per cent of married women used contraceptives; of these 98 per cent had undergone female sterilisation.

The infant mortality rate (IMR) was estimated at 35 deaths before the age of one per 1,000 live births. IMR was twice as high in rural areas as in urban areas, and it was much higher among children whose mothers had no schooling.

32 percent of children under the age of five years were underweight. Breastfeeding is almost universal, and overall, 82 percent of children continued breastfeeding at one year and 54 percent at 2 years.

65 per cent of 12-23-month-old children had received all the basic vaccinations against six major childhood illnesses (tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio and measles) before the survey. Most children were at least partially vaccinated and only 2 per cent had not received any vaccinations.

Among women who gave birth five years before the survey, 97 per cent received antenatal care from a health professional (a doctor, an auxiliary nurse midwife, a ‘lady health visitor’, a nurse or a midwife). Around 92 per cent of births took place in a private health facility.

The private health sector was the main source of healthcare for about three-fifths of urban and rural households. 75 per cent of households had health insurance that covered at least one member of the household; 81 per cent of these were rural and 61 per cent, urban.

Only 45 per cent of women were allowed to go to the market, a health facility and places outside the village/community by themselves. Among women aged 15-49, 44 per cent had experienced physical or sexual violence and of these, only 14 per cent had sought help.

Focus and Factoids by Ajay Srinivasmurthy.

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.