Kasargod: With sharp fall in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), Kerala is surely ‘God’s own Country’ for new born babies.The latest data released by the National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4) states that IMR in Kerala has gone down to six, which makes the state at par with the US.

Infant Mortality Rate is the number of children under the age of 1 who die for every 1,000 born and if Kerala’s feat is achieved by other states as well, then more than seven lakh new born could be saved every year.

Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) declined from 57 to 41 per 1,000 live births between NFHS-3 (2005-06) and NFHS-4. IMR has declined substantially in almost all the states during the last decade. It dropped by more than 20 percentage points in Tripura, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Odisha, reports news18.com.

The survey found that the full immunization coverage increased in Punjab, Bihar and Meghalaya by 29 percentage point each, while in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh it increased by 28 percentage points each.