Battling Pandemic! Kerala Witnesses Steep Fall In Births

Kerala has battled the worst and the most of the COVID-19 pandemic. In work from home setup, when lakhs of expatriates returned to the state, it witnessed a steep rise in the number of births in the first nine months of the pandemic year, the official data from the Chief Registrar of births and deaths mentioned. The state had registered 4.80 lakh births in 2019, followed by 4.53 lakh in 2020, and then, the tally drastically fell to 2.17 lakh as of September 2021.

Significant Impact On The State's Demography

The Indian Express reported that the state witnessed the slowest birth rate in 2021, ranging from as low as 27,534 in February to the highest at 32,969 in June. The following months of July, August and September saw an average of 10,000 births. In September, the Chief Registrar's data registered 12,227 births. Sources mentioned that the state is set to witness the lowest year-on-year fall in childbirth in the last decade at this pace. The sharp fall would have a significant impact on the demography of the state for years to come.

2021 Recorded Declining Birth Rate

In 2010, Kerala witnessed 5.46 lakh births, followed by 5.60 lakh births in the next year. However, since 2011, the number of births has consistently declined, barring a slight jump in 2016 and 2017. Over the years, Kerala has observed a cent per cent registration in births across rural and urban areas. Over 98 per cent of deliveries were institutional deliveries. Moreover, in 2019, over 87 per cent of births were registered within three weeks of the delivery. Data from the Department of Non-Resident Keralites Affairs (NORKA) show that 14.63 lakh expatriates, mainly from the middle-east flew into Kerala in the 13 months beginning May 2020.

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