Measurement of Mortality

Out of many measures, it is sufficient to describe three basic measures of mortality: the crude death rate, the expectation of life at birth, and the infant mortality rate.

♤ Crude Death Rate: It is the ratio of the total registered deaths occurring in a specified calendar year to the total mid-year population of that year, multiplied by 1000.

♤ Expectation of Life at Birth: The average expectation of life at birth is a good measure of the level of mortality because it is not affected by the age structure of the population. The term “average expectation of life” or life expectancy represents the average number of years of life which a cohort of new-born babies (that is, those born in the same year) may be expected to live if they are subjected to the risks of death at each year, according to the age-specific mortality rates prevailing in the country at the time to which the measure refers. This measure is complicated to calculate but easy to understand.

India’s life expectancy at birth

An Indian born in 1950 could expect to live for 37 years, whereas today India’s life expectancy at birth nearly doubled to 68 years, by 2050, it is projected to increase to 76 years. As a result, India’s population will rise from 1.3 billion today to an estimated 1.7 billion by 2050, with a much larger elderly share of around 340 million. Including the pre- retirement phase (i.e., population age 45+), the proportion will rise to over 30%, or almost 600 million persons. Between 2011 and 2050, the number of oldest old people of age 75 and above is expected to increase by 340%.

INFANT MORTALITY RATE IN INDIA

As per the Sample Registration System (SRS) Reports published by the Registrar General of India, the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) in the country has declined steadily from 47/1000 live births in 2010 to 40/1000 live births in 2013.

Under the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4 target was to reduce Child Mortality by two-third between 1990 and 2015. In case of India, it translated into a goal of reducing Infant mortality rate from 88 per thousand live births in 1990 to 29 in 2015.

United Nations has recently set Sustainable Development Goals and Targets. The target for India is to attain Under 5 Mortality Rate of 25/1000 live births by 2030.

♤ Infant Mortality Rate: Infants are defined in demography as all those children in the first year of life who have not yet reached age one. In countries like India, where health conditions are poor, infant deaths account for a substantial number of all deaths. The infant mortality rate is, therefore, often used as an indicator for determining the socio-economic status of a country and the quality of life in it.

Maternal Mortality rate in India

As per Sample Registration System (SRS), 2011-13 reports Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) is 167 per 1,00,000 live births in the Country.

Under the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5, the target is to reduce Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) by three quarters between 1990 & 2015. This translates to reducing the MMR from 560 in 1990 to 140 in 2015.

♤ Maternal Mortality Rate: The maternal mortality ratio represents the risk associated with each pregnancy, i.e. the obstetric risk. Maternal death is the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes. It is measured as number of maternal deaths per 100000 live births.