National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) 2015-16: Jammu and Kashmir

Around 71 per cent of the surveyed households lived in a pucca (permanent) structure, 97 per cent had electricity, 89 per cent used an ‘improved’ drinking water source, and 21 per cent defecated in the open.

The overall sex ratio of the population was 972 females per 1,000 males, and the sex ratio of the under-7 population was 917 females per 1,000 males.

89 per cent of 6-17-year-old children attended school; of these, 91 per cent were in urban areas and 89 per cent in rural areas. School attendance was 96 per cent in the 6-14 age group and 78 per cent among children between 15 and 17 years. In the 15-49 age bracket, 22 per cent of women and 29 per cent of men had completed 12 or more years of schooling.

Among women (aged 25-49), the median age at the time of their first marriage was 21.8 years. Around 9 per cent of women (20-24 years) got married before the legal minimum age of 18 (down from 14 per cent in NFHS-3), while 11 per cent of men (25-29) were married before the legal minimum age of 21.

The total fertility rate was 2 children per woman. Fertility declined by 0.4 children in the 10 years between NFHS-3 and NFHS-4. Around 3 per cent of 15-19-year-old women had ‘begun childbearing’ (that is, already had a live birth or were pregnant with their first child), down from 4 per cent in NFHS-3.

Among mothers who gave birth in the five years preceding the survey, 90 per cent received antenatal care for their last birth from a health professional (82 per cent from a doctor and 9 per cent from an auxiliary nurse midwife, a ‘lady health visitor’, nurse or midwife). Around 8 per cent of mothers did not receive any antenatal care.

The infant mortality rate was estimated at 32 deaths before the age of 1 per 1,000 live births, down from the NFHS-3 estimate of 45 and the NFHS-2 estimate of 65. 

75 per cent of 12-23-month-old children received all the basic vaccinations against six major childhood illnesses (tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio and measles). Only 4 per cent did not receive any vaccinations at all.

43 per cent of 6-59-month-old children were anaemic, as were 40 per cent of women (aged 15-49) and 15 per cent of men (15-54).

165 persons per 100,000 were estimated to have medically treated tuberculosis. The prevalence of the disease was slightly higher among women (175 per 100,000) than among men (154 per 100,000), and it was also higher in rural areas (187 per 100,000) than in urban areas (111 per 100,000).

According to self-reports, 1,925 women and 2,953 men per 100,000 (in the 15-49 age group) had diabetes; 890 women and 1,341 men per 100,000 suffered from asthma; and 7,011 women and 1,718 men per 1,00,000 had goitre or some other thyroid disorder.

Around 4 per cent of the surveyed households had any kind of health insurance that covered at least one member of the family. Of these households, 6 per cent were in urban areas and 3 per cent in rural areas.

26 per cent of men (aged 15-49) thought that contraception was ‘women’s business’. A majority of men (59 per cent) knew that a condom, if used correctly, protected against pregnancy most of the time.

Among women aged 15-49, 11 per cent had experienced physical or sexual violence. Of these, 16 per cent sought help and 77 per cent neither sought help nor told anyone about the violence.

20 per cent of women and 26 per cent of men wanted more sons than daughters, while 5 per cent of both women and men wanted more daughters than sons.

Three-fifths of women had a bank or savings account that they themselves used. 33 per cent of women and 81 per cent of men (both in the 15-49 age group) owned a house, either by themselves or with someone else, and 27 per cent of women and 73 per cent of men owned land, either individually or jointly with someone.

18 per cent of all women and 75 per cent of all men were employed in the 12 months before the survey. Of these, 75 per cent of employed women and 77 per cent of employed men worked in non-agricultural occupations.

Focus and Factoids by Guneet Kaur Bedi.

PARI Library's health archive project is part of an initiative supported by the Azim Premji University to develop a free-access repository of health-related reports relevant to rural India.