Child Mortality is, in fact, the total deaths of children after the first birthday and before their fifth birthday. This is different from under-5 mortality, which measures all deaths below the age of 5-years. However, the U-5 rate of the tribals has shown marginal improvement over the years to 136 deaths per 1000 children in the age-group of 0-5 years from 138 in 1997-98.
The discrepancy shows that the slight improvement in the U-5 mortality rate is primarily due to a drop in the infant mortality rate (IMR) among the tribals. Some improvement in the IMR is primarily due to increase in the institutional deliveries and not because of improved nutrition or health standards.
The grim findings with regard to the vital indicators like tribal children receiving malaria treatment, proportion of anaemic, stunted and underweight tribal children provide the clue to the steep rise in child mortality rate.
Only a measly 7.4 per cent tribal children with fever were given malaria treatment, finds the study. Significantly, it finds a high of 80 per cent tribal children as anaemic. The point here is malaria in a way contributes towards mortality and also anaemia prevalence among the tribal children.
The anaemia status gets further compounded, given their poor nutritional status. The prevalence of stunting (low height for age) among the tribal children points to chronic malnutrition. In fact, the prevalence of stunting has increased to 57 per cent from 49 in 1997-98. Acute malnutrition measured by low weight for age or underweight has been found in 55 per cent tribal children. Underweight has shown some improvement over the past decade.
Though fall in chronic malnutrition and improvement in acute malnutrition may sound bizarre, it indeed explicates the nuances of nutritional insecurity among the tribal households. While acute malnutrition accounts for cases triggered by diseases like diarrhoea, tuberculosis, measles or poor water quality or seasonal variations in food availability due to droughts, the deterioration in chronic malnutrition underscores the continuous non-availability of food. Eating of roots and tubers by tribals in Koraput testifies it.