Why does where you live affect your health in India?

Health outcomes in India can vary sharply depending on where a person lives. In today's 'YOUR INDIA', Santosh Nair writes on infant mortality, primary healthcare and the social conditions that make some states far healthier than others.

A baby born in Kerala today has a survival outlook that resembles a wealthy European country. A baby born the same year in parts of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, or Chhattisgarh faces a risk of death in infancy similar to what researchers report for Sudan.

Both babies are born under the same national government, the same Constitution, the same flag. Their odds of surviving their first year of life are not remotely the same.

India’s national infant mortality rate stands at around 25 deaths for every 1,000 live births. Kerala’s rate is just 5. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh each report a rate of 37, more than seven times higher than Kerala’s, within the same country, under the same central health policies.

Read more: Is India healthier today, or just differently unhealthy?

Why can health outcomes differ so sharply within the same country?

This is not really a story about doctors trying harder in one place than another. It is a story about what surrounds healthcare, often more than the........

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