Infant and child mortality in Bhil tribe of Jhabua district

Nearly 25 million children are born in India every year of which almost 2.7 million die before attaining the age of five years. Forty seven per cent of births take place in the four states, namely Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa, while fifty per cent of all deaths below five years also take place in these states. The present study was carried out in Jhabua district in which five per cent villages of each tehsil were selected by random sampling. Information was obtained on 430 households of 67 villages on infant and child mortality, birth order, age, sex and cause of death. 38.2% households reported the death of at least one child below the age of five years. Out of these 59.3%, 27.2% and 13.2% reported the death of one, two or three and more children respectively. 46% of infant deaths or 29.3% of all deaths occurred in the neonatal period. The major causes of death were preventable such as tetanus, diarrhoea, measles, ARI and fever. 51.3% deaths were of children who were third or more in birth order. 54.8% deaths were males and 47.59% were females. The study shows the need for an effective Dai (Midwife) Training Programme to upgrade the skills and an urgent necessity to improve the outreach services in remote tribal areas to bring down the infant mortality.