National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) 2019-21: Odisha

In Odisha, 83 per cent of the households surveyed were situated in rural areas. Only 59 per cent of the households lived in a pucca house but 96.3 per cent households had electricity.

Around 97 per cent of households in the state had at least one member who had a bank or post office account. Further, 48 per cent of households had any kind of health insurance or financing scheme that covered at least one member of the household.

Almost 87 per cent of households in Odisha had access to basic drinking water services but only 17 per cent had water piped into their dwelling, yard, or plot. ‘Clean fuel’ – electricity, liquefied petroleum gas, natural gas or biogas – was used by 35 per cent of households for cooking purposes.

Of the households surveyed in Odisha, 34 per cent (37 per cent in rural areas and 19 per cent in urban areas) did not have any sanitation facility and used either open spaces or fields. About 59 per cent of the households had basic sanitation services.

Preschool attendance among children aged 2-4 years was 42.5 per cent in the state. School attendance in the 6-14 years age group was recorded at 92.1 per cent. The number dropped to 51.3 per cent among those aged 15-17 years.

For women aged 20-49 years, the median age at first marriage was 19.9 years. The report also states that 21 per cent of women in the state, aged 20-24 years, had married before attaining the legal minimum age of 18 years.

The total fertility rate (TFR) in Odisha fell from 2.05 children per woman in NFHS-4 to 1.8 children per woman in NFHS-5. About 87 per cent of the last pregnancies in the five years before the survey resulted in a live birth. Around 13 per cent ended in foetal wastage, meaning abortion, miscarriage or stillbirth.

The contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) among currently married women aged 15-49 years was 74 per cent, a significant increase from the NFHS-4 figures of 57 per cent. However, only 49 per cent of the women used modern methods of contraception like sterilisation, pills, intrauterine devices, injectables or condoms.

The infant mortality rate in Odisha was estimated at 36.3 deaths (before the age of one year) per 1,000 live births. The under-five mortality rate was recorded at 41.1 deaths (before the age of five years) per 1,000 live births.

Among mothers who gave birth in the five years preceding the survey about 90 per cent received antenatal care for their last birth from skilled providers like a doctor, auxiliary nurse midwife, nurse, midwife or lady health visitor. More than 92 per cent of births in the same period occurred in a health facility and 7.5 per cent happened at home.

As many as 90.5 per cent of children aged 12-23 months received all basic vaccinations against illnesses including tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio and measles. Only 2.1 per cent of children in this age group had not received any vaccinations at all.

The report notes that 64 per cent of children in Odisha – aged 6-59 months – were anaemic. Among adults, 64 per cent of women and 29 per cent of men (aged 15-49) suffered from anaemia.

Only 28.7 per cent of all women compared with 84.4 per cent of men – both between the ages of 15-49 years – were employed in the 12 months preceding the survey.

Of all the surveyed women in Odisha (aged 18-49 years), 32 per cent reported having experienced either physical or sexual violence and four per cent reported experiencing both. Only 11 per cent of women in the state who had ever experienced physical or sexual violence sought help, while seven per cent never sought help but told someone.

Focus and Factoids by Adrija Bhadra. 

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.