National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) 2019-21: National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi

As per the NFHS-5, only two per cent of households surveyed in the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi were located in rural areas. On average each household consisted of 4.5 members. Around 94 per cent households lived in a pucca house and almost all households (99.9 per cent) had electricity.

More than 98 per cent households had basic drinking water services and 99 per cent used clean fuel – electricity, liquefied petroleum gas or natural gas – for cooking.

Only 1.3 per cent of households throughout Delhi (2.2 per cent in rural areas and 1.2 per cent in urban areas) did not use any sanitation facilities. About 79.8 per cent had access to ‘improved’ sanitation facilities – 79.7 per cent in urban and 83.5 per cent in rural areas.

Preschool attendance of children between the ages of 2-4 years in the territory was 35.5 per cent. The numbers were higher in rural areas (53.6 per cent) than in urban areas (35.1 per cent). Among students aged 6-14 years, 96 per cent attended school. The number dropped to 75.7 per cent for students between 15-17 years of age.

Around 10 per cent of women in Delhi (aged 20-24 years) had married before reaching the legal minimum age of 18 years, a fall from the NFHS-4 figure of 13 per cent. In the five years preceding the survey, 82 per cent of last pregnancies resulted in live births and the remaining 18 per cent ended in foetal wastage (abortion, miscarriage or stillbirth).

The contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) among currently married women (aged 15-49 years) was 76.4 per cent, a rise from the 52.9 per cent noted in NFHS-4. About 58 per cent of the married women surveyed used modern contraceptive methods like sterilisation, contraceptive pill, intrauterine devices, injectables or condoms. The most commonly employed method was condoms (28.3 per cent).

The infant mortality rate in Delhi fell from 34.7 deaths (before the age of one year) per 1,000 live births in NFHS-4 to 24.5 deaths in NFHS-5. During the same period, the under-five mortality rate also reduced from around 46.9 deaths (before the age of five year) per 1,000 live births to 30.6 deaths.

In the five years preceding the survey, 92 per cent of births took place in a health facility and the remaining eight per cent births took place at home. Of the total births, 93 per cent were delivered by a skilled provider – doctor, auxiliary nurse midwife, nurse, midwife, lady health visitor or other health personnel – and five per cent were delivered by a traditional birth attendant.

Around 76 per cent of children in Delhi between the ages of 12-23 months had received all the basic vaccinations against major diseases including tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio and measles. Notably, 55 per cent of children, under the age of six years had also received services from anganwadi centres including growth monitoring (47 per cent), supplementary food (46 per cent), health check-ups (42 per cent) and immunisations (41 per cent).

Among children less than five years of age, the percentage of those who were stunted (too short for their age) declined slightly from 32 per cent to 31 per cent between NFHS-4 and NFHS-5. The percentage of children who were wasted (too thin for their height) also reduced from 16 per cent to 11 per cent.

The report notes that 69 per cent of children (aged between 6-59 months) were anaemic. Anaemia was also reported among 50 per cent of women and 13 per cent of men in Delhi.

Only 25 per cent of households in Delhi (25 per cent in urban areas and 27 per cent in rural areas) had any kind of health insurance or financing scheme that covered at least one member of the household.

As high as 96.9 per cent of women and 98.8 per cent of men in the state had heard of HIV/AIDS. Whereas only 29.5 per cent women and 43.8 per cent men had ‘comprehensive’ knowledge of it.

According to the report, almost 97 per cent of women in Delhi (between the ages of 15-24 years) used hygienic methods of menstrual protection. Of the women surveyed, 94.5 per cent used sanitary napkins, 6.6 per cent used locally prepared napkins, 15.8 per cent used cloth, and 0.1 per cent each used tampons or menstrual cups.

In the 12 months preceding the survey, 79.4 per cent of men and 25.3 per cent of women (aged 15-49 years) were employed. Also, as per the findings, almost 73 per cent of the women in Delhi in this age group had their own bank or savings accounts which they themselves used.

Of all the women surveyed between the ages of 18 and 49 years, around 27 per cent reported having experienced either physical and sexual violence and five per cent reported experiencing both. Of the women who had experienced such violence, only 20 per cent ever sought help.

Focus and Factoids by Anushka Mukherjee.

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.