[CA] Sample Registration System (SRS)

Sample Registration System (SRS) bulletin has been released by the Registrar General of India. It is based on data collected for 2018.

Key findings:-

National birth rate in 2018 stood at 20 (36.9 in 1971).

Ø Best and worst: Bihar (26.2) continues to remain at the top of list in birth rate while Andaman and Nicobar (11.2) is at the bottom.

Ø The rural-urban differential has also narrowed. However, the birth rate has continued to be higher in rural areas compared to urban areas in the last four decades.

Ø There has been about an 11 per cent decline in birth rate in the last decade, from 22.5 in 2009 to 20.0 in 2018.

Ø The corresponding decline in rural areas is 24.1 to 21.6, and in urban areas, it is 18.3 to 16.7.

Death rate stood at 6.2 in 2018 (14.9 in 1971).

Ø Best and worst: Chhattisgarh has the highest death rate, while Delhi has the lowest.

Ø The decline has been steeper in rural areas.

Ø In the last decade, death rate at an all-India level has declined from 7.3 to 6.2. The corresponding decline in rural areas is 7.8 to 6.7 and in urban areas, 5.8 to 5.1.

Infant mortality rate is at 32. (129 in 1971).

Ø Worst and best: Madhya Pradesh (48) has the worst infant mortality rate in the country while Nagaland (4) has the best.

Ø In the last 10 years, IMR has witnessed a decline of about 35% in rural areas and about 32% in urban areas.

Ø The IMR at an all-India level has declined from 50 to 32 in the last decade.

About SRS:-

The SRS is a demographic survey for providing reliable annual estimates of infant mortality rate, birth rate, death rate and other fertility and mortality indicators at the national and sub-national levels.

Initiated on a pilot basis by the Registrar General of India in a few states in 1964-65, it became fully operational during 1969-70.

The field investigation consists of continuous enumeration of births and deaths in selected sample units by resident part-time enumerators, generally anganwadi workers and teachers; and an independent retrospective survey every six months by SRS supervisors. The data obtained by these two independent functionaries are matched.