Relationship between infant mortality rate and other demographic determinants – a study based on annual health survey of Assam

Indian economy is one of the most developing economies of the world. It is imperative on the part of both the Central and State governments to focus primarily on two important indicators, viz. Education & Health. Assam continues to rank among the four highest Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) states in the country, next only to Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa. Under the National Rural Health Mission, the Government of Assam has taken some key steps to reduce IMR at the district level within the state. India is a country with many states at different levels of development, healthcare infrastructure and income levels, and therefore also at different levels of decline in infant mortality. Assam, the second largest northeastern state of India is no exception to it. The present paper is an attempt to understand & analyze the various factors affecting IMR from all the stakeholders’ point of view viz. Women, Children, Government etc. The data has been collected from Assam Health Survey which is one of the largest demographic surveys in the world. The data on the 23 districts of Assam has been tabulated in SPSS & analysis has been done using the Regression Technique. The result indicates that there is a considerable significant effect of selected indicators on IMR.