Niti Aayog's Amitabh Kant releasing the report titled 'Healthy States, Progressive India'
Kerala tops the list when it comes to overall performance in the health sector and Uttar Pradesh is at the bottom but has made some annual incremental gains. These are some of the findings of the first-of-its-kind study done by the central government, the report of which was released today.
Developed by the Niti Aayog in consultation with the health ministry and with technical assistance from the World Bank, 'Healthy States, Progressive India' attempts at establishing an annual tool to measure and understand the complexity of the country's performance in health.
In the report, rankings have been done in three categories --- larger states, smaller states and union territories.
With a health index of 76.55 in the reference year (2015-16), Kerala ranks first. But it shows a steep decline when compared with its previous year's performance. In contrast, Uttar Pradesh that's at the bottom in the group of larger states ranks third in terms of annual incremental performance. Jharkhand is the biggest gainer in this category, followed by Jammu and Kashmir.
Among the smaller states, Mizoram ranks first followed by Manipur on overall performance. In terms of annual incremental performance, Manipur is on top followed by Goa and Meghalaya.
Lakshadweep is the top performer among union territories, both in terms of overall performance and annual incremental performance.
Calling the health sector a "neglected" area, Niti Aayog chief executive officer Amitabh Kant said, "Every state needs to improve. We need to improve the physical quality of life index, human development index and maternal and child mortality rates".
The report was released by Niti Aayog chief executive officer Amitabh Kant, health secretary Preeti Sudan and World Bank's India director Junaid Ahmad.