dehradun in news which shows that all is not well in the states health sector a report released by niti aayog on friday titled healthy states progressive india listed uttarakhand as the only state which has shown negative growth 010 among the eight empowered action group eag states of the country which are regarded as socioeconomically backward the report which pertains to the period between 201415 and 201516 categorised uttarakhand among the states having ni not improved status ie those states which have done little to improve their health conditions the himalayan states rankings slipped from 14th in 201415 to 15th in the overall composite index score a weighted composite index based on indicators in three domains health outcomes governance and information and key inputs and processes in comparison jharkhand another eag state scored impressively on the composite index score improving its ranking from 14th position earlier to 18th the report also highlighted the himalayan states poor mother and child healthcare statistics which had been pointed out by the sample registration system survey prepared by the ministry of home affairs as well last year the neonatal mortality rate nmr or the number of neonatal deaths occurring in the first 28 days of the birth of a child increased in uttarakhand from 26 in 201415 to 28 in 201516 putting it in the dubious company of states like haryana and bihar where a similar rise was reported the u5mr which indicates the probability of a child dying before attaining the age of 5 also increased only in three states of the country uttarakhand from 36 in 201415 to 38 in 201516 maharashtra from 23 to 24 and haryana from 40 to 43 the state didnt fare well in other critical parameters too like sex ratio at birth or the number of girls born for every 1000 boys born during a specific year the states sex ratio dipped from 871 in 201415 to 844 in 201516 indicating that the number of girls born in the oneyear period had dipped in the himalayan state in terms of institutional deliveries childbirth taking place at health facilities uttarakhand registered a dip as well with the percentage of such deliveries falling from 643 in 201415 to 626 in 201516 when queried about the reports findings dr anjali nautiyal director national health programmes of the state told toi i have not gone through the complete report yet to make any conclusive comment however we are constantly working towards improving the key health indicators of uttarakhand a whole new strategy is already in place towards this end while there are areas of concern highlighted in the report there is also mention of significant improvements being made in improving the fertility rate in uttarakhand as well as an improvement in health data management