TS, AP record low birth rates, infant mortality rates improve
The Hindu
Records as per the latest yearly ‘Sample Registration System’
The two Telugu States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh had recorded birth rates much lower than the national average in both urban and rural areas, whereas the death rates are slightly more. Also, the infant mortality rate has improved indicating better healthcare facilities over the years. This is as per the latest yearly ‘Sample Registration System (SRS)’ brought out by the Office of Registrar General of India for all States and Union Territories.
The SRS provides reliable annual estimates of Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), birth rate, death rate and other fertility and mortality indicators at the national and sub-national levels. It is a large-scale demographic survey conducted every year and the latest bulletin released on Tuesday is for 2019, which means the COVID years’ (20-21) figures are not yet available.
If the national birth rate per thousand population is 19.7 with 16.4 in urban areas and 21.4 in rural areas, it is 16.7 in TS with 16.1 in urban areas and 17 in rural areas; whereas in neighbouring AP the figures are: 15.9 in total with 15.2 in urban areas and 16.2 in rural areas.
Aasheesh Pittie says birdwatching is not very unlike hunting, except that nothing is killed. “You track… you want to follow the bird… see it,” he says about this activity that he has pursued for nearly fifty years. Pittie, the editor of the ornithological journal Indian Birds, author of many classic reference books about birds and most recently, a collection of bird essays titled The Living Air: Pleasures of Birds and Birdwatching, was speaking at an event organised by the Archives of the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS).