The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has strongly refuted the findings of a recent study published in the academic journal Science Advances, highlighting a notable decline in life expectancy in India during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
The ministry dismissed the study’s estimates as “untenable and unacceptable.”
According to the study, India witnessed a 2.6-year reduction in life expectancy from 2019 to 2020, with socially disadvantaged groups such as Muslims and Scheduled Tribes (STs) facing the most severe impacts. The study claimed that females experienced a sharper decline (3.1 years) compared to males (2.1 years).
However, the health ministry identified several methodological flaws in the study. It criticised the authors for using a non-representative subset of households from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), conducted between January and April 2021, to generalise mortality rates for the entire nation. The ministry further emphasised that the NFHS sample is representative only when viewed in its entirety, and analysing just 23 per cent of households from 14 states cannot provide an accurate reflection of national mortality trends.
The ministry also highlighted potential selection and reporting biases, noting that the data was collected during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. It defended the robustness of India’s Civil Registration System (CRS), which captures over 99 per cent of deaths.
“This reporting has consistently increased from 75 per cent in 2015 to over 99 per cent in 2020,” the ministry said.
The government pointed out that death registrations rose by approximately 474,000 in 2020 compared to 2019, a trend consistent with previous years and not solely attributable to the pandemic.
“Excess numbers are also due to an increasing trend of death registration in CRS (it was 92 per cent in 2019) and a larger population base in the succeeding year,” the ministry added.
Additionally, the Sample Registration System (SRS), which covers a large and diverse population across the country, reported minimal to no excess mortality in 2020 compared to 2019.
The government further contested the study’s findings on age and sex-related mortality increases. Official data indicated that Covid-19 mortality was higher among males and older age groups, contradicting the study’s claim that younger individuals and females experienced higher mortality.
“These inconsistent and unexplainable results in the published paper further reduce any confidence in its claims,” the ministry said.
First Published: Jul 20 2024 | 4:48 PM IST
