Factsheets generated from the sixth National Family Health Survey completed in Dec 2024 have been ready for over a year, according to sources, but they are yet to be made public. In Aug last year, there were media reports that they would be out in a month. According to those who were part of conducting the survey and preparing the factsheets, those for key indicators can be released only after the approval of the health ministry. There was no response from the health ministry to TOI’s queries on the reasons for the delay. Though the preparations for NFHS-6 began in mid-2022, it was officially launched nationwide in Dec 2023. The survey was done in two phases over a year. NFHS-5 was also conducted in two phases – Phase-I from June 17, 2019 to Jan 30, 2020 covering 17 states and five UTs, and Phase-II from 2 Jan, 2020 to 30 April, 2021 covering 11 states and three UTs. Despite being conducted during the Covid years, the Phase-I factsheets were out on Dec 12, 2020 (in less than 11 months) and the Phase-II factsheets on Nov 24, 2021, less than seven months after the survey. The delay in the NFHS-6 factsheets being released is despite being, for the first time, carried out entirely using a digital platform through Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing, with built-in checks for real-time error detection and validation to improve data quality.
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Questions in Parliament in Aug 2025 and Feb this year on the reasons behind the delay did not elicit any information. The answer to a question in Rajya Sabha on Feb 3, for instance, was: “The ministry ensures timely dissemination of NFHS data by conducting regular follow-ups with the nodal agency and regular meetings at higher levels to monitor progress and oversee intermediary steps.” NFHS-6 is expected to provide estimates of the levels of fertility, infant and child mortality, and other family welfare and health indicators by background characteristics at the national and district levels. This would provide important inputs for state-level policy making, programme design and resource allocation. NFHS-6 dropped questions on anaemia and disability, but added 58 new ones, including 10 on Covid and its vaccinations, bringing the total number of questions to 1,068. Other new topics surveyed include mobility and migration of people, women’s self-help groups, and digital and financial literacy of women, especially on whether they use mobile phones for financial transactions. The decision on which topics to include or drop is taken by NITI Aayog and the health ministry along with the NFHS technical advisory committee. Unlike earlier rounds of NFHS, which were done thro-ugh collaborative funding from foreign agencies, the entire exercise this time was fully funded by the health ministry. For the first time, all aspects of the NFHS-6 survey were coordinated solely by International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai.