Healthy States Progressive India: NITI Aayog’s Health Index Report

The Healthy States, Progressive India report of the Niti Aayog takes a comprehensive look at health in terms of health outcomes in several health indicators, governance and impact of policy decisions.

The second edition of the report focuses on measuring the overall performance and incremental improvement over a two-year period — 2016-17 and 2017-18 — in the states and UTs.

Findings of the Report

  • Kerala has again topped the latest health ranking report. Kerala was followed by Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra in the rankings.
  • The fourth, fifth and sixth spots were occupied by Gujarat, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh respectively.
  • Punjab which was at the second rank last year was pushed to the fifth spot and Tamil Nadu which was third was pushed to ninth spot.
  • Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra improved their score in indicators like low birth weight and full immunization coverage while Punjab and Tamil Nadu have deteriorated.
  • Uttar Pradesh remained the worst in the health rankings at 21. Bihar s ranking shifted from 19th to 20th whereas Odisha s ranking has dropped from 18th to 19th.
  • Uttar Pradesh and Bihar fared badly in indicators such as sex ratio, the success rate of treatment of TB cases and time taken for transfer of funds under National Health Mission.
  • Chhattisgarh with the sex ratio at birth at 963, which has overtaken Kerala to be the highest in the country.
  • The sex ratio at birth of Kerala has fallen from 967 to 959.
  • Haryana which has the worst sex ratio at 832 witnessed a slight improvement from 831 and UP has also improved a bit from 879 to 882.
  • UP, Bihar, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh fared poor among indicators of both neonatal as well as under-5 mortality rates and Kerala was ranked best in both categories.
  • Mizoram has ranked first in overall performance while among Union territories, Chandigarh has ranked first.

Releasing the report of the CEO of NITI Aayog highlighted the state’s ranking would impact the budget they get from Centre.