Analysis

The fifth National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) offers data on India's population, health, and nutrition for each state and union territory (UT). The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India, helped orchestrate all five NFHS surveys. The Government of India contributed funding for NFHS-5. The USAID-supported Demographic and Health Surveys Program, ICF, USA, provided technical help and supplementary financing for NFHS-5. The International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) in Mumbai has been appointed as the nodal agency for all NFHS rounds by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The core objective of the National Family Health Surveys for 2019-21 is to provide critical data on health and family welfare, as well as data on developing challenges in these areas, such as fertility rates, infant and child mortality, maternal and child health, and other health and family welfare indicators by background characteristics at the national and state levels.

NFHS-5, like NFHS-4, addresses various developing challenges, such as neonatal mortality, high-risk sexual behavior, safe injections, tuberculosis, non-communicable illnesses, and the use of emergency contraception. The NFHS-5 data is vital in establishing benchmarks and assessing the health sector's progress over time.

The findings from NFHS-5 aid in recognizing the need for new programs with a specific focus and identifying groups that are most in need of important services, in addition to giving evidence for the effectiveness of current programs.