More younger, educated women are now giving birth at unsafe intervals: Data

Indian women aged 15 to 29 years and those with more years in school gave birth at shorter, unsafe intervals over the decade to 2015-16, shows an IndiaSpend analysis of health data.

Birth intervals–the time between two successive live births–of less than 24 months may lead to low birth weight and death of a child, according to the 2015-16 report of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS).

The optimal birth interval to reduce neonatal and infant mortality is three to five years, according to global research (here and here). In India, spacing between births for women aged 15-29 years worsened from 25 months to 22.5 months over 10 years, we found.

The median interval between two live births fell by 2.5 months to 22.5 months in 2015-16 from 25 months in 2005-06 for women aged 15-19 years and by 6 days to under 29 months from 29 months for women aged 20-29 years, according to our analysis of data from 2005-06 and 2015-16.

Sisodia seeks removal of DIP director for not launching Dengue awareness

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has again sought action against the director of the Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) for "not following" his direction to launch awareness campaign about chikungunya and dengue in the city.

This is the second time when Sisodia has sought the removal of DIP Director Jayadev Sarangi after he denied his nod to hold the Deputy CM's Facebook Live even on GST with traders.

In his letter to Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, the deputy chief minister said that Sarangi was directed on May 25 to place hoardings and run a campaign for creating awareness about dengue and chikungunya, but he has not done anything till now.

"I do not understand what are the compulsions for not replacing such an incompetent officer. I again urge the Lt Governor to either replace him with a more sincere officer or get the campaign on dengue/chikungunya done from him," Sisodia said in the letter.

He also said that at a time, LG himself is proactively involved in preventive operations and taking regular meetings and all the agencies are trying their best to coordinate with each other and do the needful, the DIP is having no interest in creating awareness as required.

Earlier this month, Sisodia had directed Chief Secretary M M Kutty to take action against Sarangi for denying permission to his Facebook Live event, saying an open tender was required to organise such an event.

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