Key Determinants of Infant Health:Empirical Findings from Rural Dakshina Kannada District in Karnataka

The health status of infants in any country is the reflection of the socio-economic development of that country. Child malnutrition is the central health problem in India and the largest human development gap that the nation faces (Shivakumar, 2006). Deaths in infancy are indicative of a poor state of maternal and child health services (Bose, 2006). The results of the recent National Health Family Survey (NFHS) show that not only the nutrition and health status of children in the country is poor, but also they are showing very slow signs of improvement. For instance, 46 percent of children under the age of three are under-weight which is an improvement of only one per cent age point compared to National Family Health Survey-2 which was carried out 8 years back. The corresponding level of child malnutrition is much lower in most other countries- 28 per cent in Sub-Sahara Africa, and 8 per cent in China (Shivakumar, 2006). In the fitness of things, 'human development' should always precede 'human resource development' in India.

The state of health of infants in the rural areas of Dakshina Kannada was surveyed and the principal determinants of infant health were assessed and the linkage between family planning and infant health was established as a possible means to provide solutions to the infant health on the basis of primary survey conducted in the region. The Dakshina Kannada district has 71 Primary Health Centres (PHC) providing infant health and family planning services at the at covering 356 villages. Using Disproportionate stratified random sampling technique 852 respondents were interviewed with a structured questionnaire to elicit necessary information. Care was taken to select the respondent having a child less than 3 years of age.