India’s healthcare challenges are daunting but the challenges seem to be most acute in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state
The recent deaths of more than 70 children in less than a week’s span at the BRD Medical College Hospital have focused attention on the deep-seated rot in the hospital, and in Gorakhpur district in general. But far from being an under-performer in terms of health and development outcomes, Gorakhpur performs as good as, if not better than, the state average, on most indicators, a Mint analysis shows.
The data suggests that Gorakhpur is far from a backwater compared to Uttar Pradesh’s (UP’s) standards. And the fact that large-scale deaths could take place there shows that such tragedies can recur, possibly in a even more devastating form, if systemic challenges in healthcare remain unaddressed.
As the chart below shows, the proportion of households with an improved source of drinking water is higher in Gorakhpur than in the rest of the state. The proportion of those having toilets is nearly the same, shows data from the latest round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) conducted in 2015-16. The proportion of underweight children is lower in Gorakhpur compared to rest of UP and the proportion of children with full immunization (BCG, measles and 3 doses each of polio and DBT) is higher compared to the state average.
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