Health Index 2019: Odisha Slips To 19th Rank

Bhubaneswar: The poor performance of the health sector in Odisha from 2015 to 2018 has come to the limelight as the state has slipped to the 19^th rank in the second round of the health index report, which was released by Niti Aayog on Tuesday.

According to the release, Odisha, which had ranked 18 among the 21 states last year, has slipped to the 19^th rank followed by the two other worse performing states, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh ranked 20th and 21st respectively.

While Kerala has emerged as the top ranking state in terms of overall health performance, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra are the second and third best performers respectively on health parameters.

The second round of the health index took into account the period 2015-16 (base year) to 2017-18 (reference year).

Among larger states, Haryana, Rajasthan and Jharkhand are the top three in terms of incremental performances, the report said.

As per the report, the decline in the overall health index score of five empowered action group states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha between the base year and the reference year is attributed to the deterioration of performances of several indicators.

The report has been prepared in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with technical assistance from the World Bank.