One in every 128 deaths in Jharkhand is certified by a medical professional–the worst record of any Indian state and an indication of the absence of healthcare in India’s second-poorest state by per capita income.
Of 132,099 registered deaths in Jharkhand–carved out of Bihar in the year 2000 and currently ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party–1,028 were medically certified (0.8%), 19.7% lower than the average for India, where 20.5% of death are certified. As many as 5.21 million deaths were registered in India in 2014, of which 1.06 million were medically certified.
Though certified deaths doubled in Jharkhand from 458 in 2013 to 1,028 in 2014, the improvement did not move the state of 33 million from the bottom rung. Up to 37% of Jharkhand’s population lives below the poverty line, according to this June 2014 report of the erstwhile Planning Commission; 50% of Jharkhand’s districts have poverty levels above 40%.
No new hospital was opened since the creation of Jharkhand 16 years ago. The state’s population surged by more than five million between 2001 and 2011, India Live Todayreported in September 2016. No new college opened either over the last 15 years, and existing colleges were not expanded.
(Sourced from agencies, feature image courtesy:bushfoundation.org)
