National Family Health Survey-6 (NFHS-6) 2023-24

On 29th May 2026, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released the National Family Health Survey-6 (NFHS-6) 2023-24, highlighting progress in maternal and child health, nutrition, women’s empowerment, and healthcare access, while identifying continuing challenges in child nutrition.

Key Points

About NFHS-6: Conducted during 2023-24, the survey covered 6.79 lakh households across 715 districts in India.
Institutional Deliveries: Institutional births increased from 88.6% during NFHS-5 to 90.6% during NFHS-6.
Maternal Healthcare: Antenatal care coverage reached 95.9%, while first-trimester antenatal registration improved from 70% to 76.2%.
Fertility Rate: India’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR) remained at 2.0, close to replacement-level fertility (2.1).
Child Immunisation: More than 96% of children aged 12–23 months received vaccinations.
Women’s Digital Inclusion: The proportion of women who had ever used the internet nearly doubled from 33.3% to 64.3%.
Nutrition Improvements: Stunting declined from 35.5% to 32.3%, wasting from 19.3% to 16.3%, severe wasting from 7.7% to 5.7%, and underweight prevalence from 32.1% to 29.2%.
Child Feeding Concerns: Only 15.3% of children aged 6–23 months received an adequate diet, though this improved from 11% in NFHS-5.
Breastfeeding Decline: Exclusive breastfeeding among infants below six months declined from 63.7% to 55.8%, raising concerns among health experts.