As per the sample registration system, what was the Under-5 mortality rate in 2020 in India?

Question

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Correct — B, 32. The Sample Registration System (SRS) Statistical Report 2020, released by the Office of the Registrar General of India in September 2022, put India's Under-5 Mortality Rate (U5MR) at 32 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2020 — down 3 points from 35 in 2019. The same round reported an Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) of 28 and a Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) of 20 for 2020, so 32 is the U5MR figure specifically.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Too low for 2020. India's U5MR was still in the low-30s that year; a rate near 25 is the SDG 3.2 target India is working towards by 2030, not what SRS 2020 recorded.  (c) Belongs to an earlier period — U5MR had already fallen to 35 by 2019, so 41 reflects India's mid-2010s level, not 2020. (41 is also the rural IMR India reported in 2015, an easy number to mis-file.)  (d) Far too high — that is roughly where India's under-5 mortality stood in the early 2010s. Child mortality has fallen steadily every SRS round since.

Concept: The Sample Registration System is the Registrar General of India's large-scale, dual-record demographic survey; it is the official annual source for India's birth rate, death rate, IMR, NMR and U5MR, and it is what the government uses to report SDG-3 progress. The three child-mortality indicators differ only in the age window: NMR counts deaths in the first 28 days, IMR deaths before the first birthday, and U5MR deaths before the fifth birthday — all per 1,000 live births. Because U5MR is the widest window, it is always the largest of the three for the same year.

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