Uttarakhandhas the third-highest infantmortality rate(IMR) of 27 deaths per 1,000 live births among the 10 Himalayan states of the country after Arunachal Pradesh (29) and Meghalaya (33), shows National Health Missions sample registration system (SRS) report. This is despite Uttarakhand recording an improvement in its IMR in 2019 as compared to 2018 when the hill state registered 31infantdeaths for every 1,000 live births.
However, the states IMR was found better than the national Average of 30 in the recently-released SRS report. According to the data, the national average for IMR is 34 in rural areas and 20 in urban areas. In Uttarakhand, the rural and urban belts have IMRs of 28 and 26 respectively.
Experts believe that while the improvement in IMR is significant for the state, they pointed out that several areas in the hills still lack basic health .