Maharashtra records high number of low birth weight babies despite economic progress
Along with Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, Maharashtra accounts for nearly 50% of the low birth weight babies born in the country, according to a review article published in BMJ Global Health, an indexed journal that carries peer-reviewed articles, on Tuesday.
The BMJ study analysed trends in low-weight births across states from 1993 to 2021, utilising data from five National Family Health Surveys conducted in this period. While low-weight births decreased from 26% to 18% during this period at the national level, there are states where every third child born is still under 2.5 kg and classified as a low birth-weight baby.
Many states, such as Rajasthan and Delhi, caught up with the national average, but a few still remain behind.
"The 2019–21 (NFHS) survey suggests that there were 4.2 million low birth-weight babies in a single year in India. Just four states — Uttar Pradesh (858,000), Bihar (430,000), Maharashtra (399,000), and West Bengal (318,000) — accounted for almost half (47%) of all these births," said the article.
Birth weight is an important measure of the health of pregnant women and newborns.
"A baby could be born with low birth weight because he/she is premature or because of some health issues with the mother," said neonatologist Dr Nandkishor Kabra from Surya Children's Hospital in Santacruz.
The mother could be malnourished, anaemic, hypertensive, or have an infection, and her low birth weight baby could be at a higher risk of chronic diseases in later life or developing cognitive problems.
Experts believe Maharashtra's failure to check low-weight births reflects inadequate allocation for public health. Health economist Dr Ravi Duggal previously pointed out that public finance for healthcare in India is one of the lowest in the world.
While the national figure is Rs 1,448 per capita, some states spend more. In Arunachal, it is Rs 6,706 per capita, and Rs 5,575 per capita in Sikkim.
"However, at the bottom, we have West Bengal at Rs 806 per capita, UP at Rs 892 per capita, Bihar at Rs 898 per capita, and Maharashtra at Rs 975 per capita," he said.
The study's authors, including S V Subramanian from Harvard Centre for Population and Development Studies, said, "Despite the overall progress, the persistence of high prevalence of low birth weight in certain states highlights the need for ongoing efforts to address maternal and neonatal health disparities."
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