NITI Aayog's Health Index

• 26 Jun 2019

NITI Aayog in its annual health index has named Kerala, as the top performer among larger states for overall performance on health indicators.

Health Index

• The second edition of NITI Aayog’s report focuses on measuring the overall performance and incremental improvement in the states and union territories (UTs) over two year period (2016-17 and 2017-18 with 2015-16 as the base year and 2017-18 as the reference year.
• The health index has been developed by NITI Aayog, with technical assistance from the World Bank, in consultation with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• Health index is based on 23 health indicators with major weightage given to mortality rate, total fertility rate, and sex ratio.
• The ranking was done under three categories larger states, smaller states and Union territories (UTs) to ensure comparison among similar entities.

Key Findings

• In overall performance, Kerala followed by Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, are top performers.
• Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have shown no improvement in health status.
• In incremental performance, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Jharkhand are at the top while Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttarakhand have been shown as the worst performers.
• The report highlighted a decline in the overall health index score of the five empowered action group (EAG) states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha.
• Among the Union Territories (UTs), Chandigarh ranked first in overall performance, while Dadra and Nagar Haveli have shown significant improvement.
• Among the smaller states, Mizoram ranked first in overall performance, while Tripura and Manipur were the top two states in terms of incremental performance.
  
  • Overall health index scores have decreased the most for Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.