Long Live Indians, But Gujaratis Live Longer Than The Rest, A Study Finds
In the last 13 years the infant mortality rate decreased from 62 in 2000 to 36 in 2013.
Life expectancy in Gujarat is 68.7 years which is abouut 0.8 years higher than that of the country as a whole. The study of mortality carried out between 2010 and 2014 reveals that the life expectancy among women is higher than that of men.
BCCL/representational image
Data released by the Census of India reveals that life expectancy among men was 66.6 years while the same among women was 71. The life expectancy between 1970-1975 was 48.8 which was at par among male and female.
Officials said that life expectancy in the state has increased by nearly 20 years over four decades.
Health commissioner JP Gupta said that life expectancy is the biggest parameter of health and wellbeing of the people of a state.
AP/representational image
"Life expectancy depends on several reasons among which include health, and better and improved lifestyle. In Gujarat on an average, 12 lakh children are born every year and around 4 lakh people, including infants, die," Gupta said.
He said that the state government is concerned about the infant mortality rate which, according to the state health department, was around 30, a decline from 36 in 2013. He said that the government is dedicated to reducing this further and efforts are going on to bring it down.
According to the data, in the 42 years between 1971-2013, the birth rate in the state has come down from 40 to 20.8 ¡ª a reduction of nearly 50%. Simultaneously the fertility rate, which was 5.6, has also come down to 2.3.
AP/representational image
According to the data, the growth rate in terms of life expectancy among men in the state was 0.43 between 1970-75 and 2010-2014, while the same was 0.54 among women.
The census data further reveals that infant mortality, which was over 100 till 1985, has seen a considerable decline.
In the last 13 years the infant mortality rate decreased from 62 in 2000 to 36 in 2013.
Officials further said that the decrease in infant mortality rate was because of various schemes of the state government. These schemes include Chiranjivi project among others.
