Mizoram is set to achieve a Ministry of Health and Family Welfare award this week for reducing child mortality rate nearly by half, Mizoram health department officials said.

Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare(MoHFW) Jagat Prasad Nadda will hand over the award to Dr Lalrozama, Mission Director, National Health Mission and Dr Hmingthanmawii, State Programme Officer, Reproductive Child Health(RCH) at Hotel Hyatt Regency, New Delhi on June 29. Infant mortality rate (IMR) in Mizoram during the fiscal year 2016-17 stood at 21 with 405 infants dying before attaining the age of one, the rate was highest in the southernmost Lawngtlai district at 29, followed by neighbouring Siaha district at 28.

The horrid rate of infant mortality became a headache for Mizoram health department officials and all out effort to reduce infant mortality was given this fiscal year reducing child mortality rate nearly by half. Mizoram government sources said that only 14 infant deaths are recorded in the current year and has said that it was a big achievement. Many villages in the southern districts of Lawngtlai and Siaha in Mizoram are remote and literacy rate is low compared to the other districts and hence there is lack of basic health knowledge. Moreover, many malnourished pregnant mothers cross over from Myanmar side which has become a major hurdle in reducing infant deaths.