IMPACT OF PANCHAYAT AUTONOMY ON HEALTH OUTCOMES
Focus:
- Panchayats with greater autonomy exhibit superior health, nutrition, and sanitation outcomes.
- They collaborate with health departments to provide clinics, dispensaries, prenatal and postnatal care, and clean water facilities, reducing maternal and infant mortality rates.
State-wise Analysis:
- States like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Himachal Pradesh, with high scores on health parameters, have lower rural infant mortality rates (IMR).
- Conversely, states like Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Assam, with lower health scores, exhibit higher IMRs.
- States with higher devolution index scores, indicating greater panchayat autonomy, tend to perform better in health outcomes.
- Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu show higher devolution scores, correlating with better health indicators.
- Conversely, states like Assam, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh have lower devolution scores and poorer health outcomes.
Source: TH
Key Term
Infant mortality rates (IMR): IMR, or Infant Mortality Rate, is a crucial health indicator that measures the number of deaths of infants under one year old per 1,000 live births in a given population within a specified time period, typically one year. |