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New Delhi: India has registered significant improvements in child health indicators, including immunisation coverage and nutritional outcomes, according to the sixth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-6) released by the Union Health Ministry on Friday, May 29.
Full vaccination coverage among children aged 12-23 months increased from 83.8 per cent in 2019-21 to 87.1 per cent in 2023-24, while key child nutrition indicators such as stunting and severe wasting registered significant declines, according to the NFHS-6.
The NFHS-6 was conducted during 2023-24 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai as the nodal agency.
Covering nearly 6.79 lakh households across 715 districts, the survey provides evidence on population, health, nutrition and family welfare indicators and supports programme implementation up to the district level.
India continues to make strong progress towards universal immunisation coverage, the ministry said in a statement.
Full vaccination coverage among children aged 12-23 months, based on vaccination cards, increased from 83.8 per cent in NFHS-5 (2019-21) to 87.1 per cent in NFHS-6 (2023-24).
Reaffirming the trust of communities in the public healthcare system, 95.6 per cent of children received most vaccinations through public health facilities, up from 94.5 per cent in NFHS-5.
The survey found that receipt of any vaccine among children aged 12-23 months remained consistently high at above 96 per cent, while substantial improvements were recorded across major vaccines.
Rotavirus vaccination coverage rose sharply from 36.4 per cent to 85.4 per cent during the survey period, while coverage of the second dose of measles-containing vaccine increased significantly from 58.6 per cent to 71.8 per cent.
The survey also recorded improvements in key child health indicators. The prevalence of symptoms of acute respiratory infection (ARI) among children declined from 2.8 per cent to 1.9 per cent, while the prevalence of severe diarrhoea declined to 0.5 per cent.
NFHS-6 also indicated encouraging progress in child nutrition outcomes.
Stunting (low height for age) among children under five years declined substantially from 35.5 per cent to 29.3 per cent, a reduction of around 17 per cent, reflecting improvement in long-term nutritional outcomes.
Severe wasting (too thin for one’s height) declined sharply from 7.7 per cent to 5.2 per cent, a reduction of around 32 per cent, while underweight prevalence among children under five years registered a marginal decline from 32.1 per cent to 31.8 per cent.
The survey found that 95.6 per cent of children under six months of age were breast-fed during the survey period. The proportion of children under three years who were breast-fed within one hour of birth increased from 41.8 per cent to 50.1 per cent.
Improvement was also observed in infant and young child feeding practices, with children aged six to eight months receiving solid or semi-solid food along with breastmilk increasing from 45.9 per cent to 59.5 per cent.
“These gains reflect strengthened last-mile service delivery by dedicated frontline health workers, enhanced cold chain infrastructure, digital tracking systems such as U-WIN and active community engagement under India‘s Universal Immunisation Programme and other public health programmes,” the ministry said.
The ministry said the gains in child nutrition outcomes were driven by convergent efforts across ministries through flagship initiatives such as POSHAN Abhiyaan and Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0, supported by strengthened service delivery under ICDS.
Complementary interventions under the National Health Mission, including maternal and child health services, Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres, Mother’s Absolute Affection, infant and young child feeding initiatives, iron and folic acid supplementation and growth monitoring, have further contributed to improved outcomes, it said.
This post was last modified on May 29, 2026 10:01 pm