Life expectancy at birth for India is 70.42 years: Govt in LS

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday stated in a written reply in the Lok Sabha that the total fertility rate (TFR) of India witnessed a decline from 6 children per woman in 1951 to 3.1 in 2001 and then to 2.0 in 2019-21 indicating replacement level of fertility.

New Delhi: The life expectancy at birth (both male and female) for India is 70.42 years while it is 71.74 years and 73.57 years for Nepal and Bangladesh, said Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday while quoting the latest United Nations Population Division Estimates. Life expectancy at birth reflects the overall mortality level of a population. It summarizes the mortality pattern that prevails across all age groups.

"India is a large country with different social, cultural and geographical diversities. The status of health care in a country is reflected through the pattern of basic demographic indicators," said Mandaviya in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

The success of the health and family welfare programme in India is clearly evident from the trend of such indicators since independence and in particular since the new millennium based on the estimates from the sample registration system (SRS) of the Registrar General of India (RGI), said Mandaviya.

He also said that the crude birth rate (CBR) of the country has halved from 40.8 births per 1000 population in 1951 to 19.5 births in 2020. "The crude death rate (CDR) has experienced a fall from 25.1 deaths per 1000 population in 1951 to 8.4 in 2001 and further to 6.0 deaths per 1000 population in 2020 indicating India has prevented around 19 deaths per 1000 population since 1951," said Mandaviya.

The total fertility rate (TFR) of India witnessed a decline from 6 children per women in 1951 to 3.1 in 2001 and then to 2.0 in 2019-21 indicating replacement level of fertility. "In recent years, India has witnessed a notable improvement in maternal health by bringing down the maternal mortality ratio to 103 maternal deaths per 100000 live births in 2017-19, from 301 during 2001-3," said Mandaviya.