New Delhi. More deaths occurred in India during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 than in 2019. This information has been given in an international study. According to the study, 11.9 lakh additional deaths occurred during the pandemic in 2020 and this figure is 17 percent more than in 2019. Others, including researchers from Oxford University in Britain, said that this estimate is about eight times more than the official figures of deaths due to COVID-19 in India and 1.5 times more than the World Health Organization’s estimate.
Meanwhile, reacting to the study, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued a statement, calling the study’s estimates misleading. According to the study authors, using data from more than 7.65 lakh individuals, the study estimated the change in life expectancy at birth in India between 2019 and 2020 based on gender and social group. According to the study, India is a country where one-third of the additional deaths due to the global pandemic have occurred.
This data is taken from the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5). The authors said that life expectancy of women has decreased by 3.1 years, while it has decreased by 2.1 years in men. In the study published in the journal ‘Science Advances’, the authors said that these patterns are in contrast to the patterns observed in high-income countries, where more deaths occurred among men than women during the pandemic.
The researchers found that higher caste Hindu groups saw a decline of 1.3 years in life expectancy, while Muslims and Scheduled Tribes saw a decline of 5.4 years and 4.1 years respectively.
Ashish Gupta, a researcher at the University of Oxford and author of the study, said, “Life expectancy of marginalized groups was already low and the pandemic has further increased the gap between the most privileged Indian social groups and the most marginalized social groups in India.” In addition, the researchers found that mortality rates have increased across all age groups in India, most notably among the young and the old.
He said that the reason for more deaths among the youngest children could be that children were more vulnerable to COVID-19 infection in some areas. The statement of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that the study published in the journal ‘Journal Science Advances’ showing excess mortality in the year 2020 is based on unconfirmed and unacceptable estimates.
It says that although the authors claim to follow the standard methodology of analysing the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5), there are serious flaws in their methodology. The statement says, “The NFHS sample is representative of the country only when it is considered as a whole. The 23 per cent families included in this analysis from the share of fourteen states cannot be considered representative of the country.”
The statement said, “This study falsely argues for the need for such an analysis and claims that vital registration systems are weak in low and middle-income countries, including India. This is far from the truth. There was a substantial increase (over 99 per cent) in death registrations in 2020, up from 92 per cent in 2019, and this is not due solely to the pandemic.”
Tags: Coronavirus, COVID-19, oxford university, World Health Organization
FIRST PUBLISHED : July 20, 2024, 20:21 IST