The drop is seen as a significant demographic indicator, reflecting the toll of the pandemic on the nation's population.
For the first time in nearly half a century, India witnessed a moderate decline in its life expectancy at birth during 2017-2021, a setback attributed largely to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the latest health statistics, the life expectancy at birth, which had steadily risen from around 49.7 years in the early 1970s to 70 years by 2016-2020, dropped to 69.8 years in the 2017-2021 period.
The drop, though numerically small, is seen as a significant demographic indicator, reflecting the toll of the pandemic on the nation's population.
It aligns with a sharp increase in the number of deaths recorded nationally.
While annual registered deaths had hovered steadily in the range of 5 to 6 million over the past two decades, Covid's second wave-hit year 2021 saw an unprecedented surge, with deaths jumping to over 10.2 million, a nearly 26 per cent increase over the previous year.
Even in 2020, the first pandemic year, deaths had already risen by over six per cent compared to 2019.
Across 32 states and Union Territories that reported higher deaths between 2020 and 2021, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Punjab, Telangana, Jharkhand, and Delhi topped the list.
These spikes represent one of the steepest year-on-year increases in registered deaths India has seen in decades, overwhelming civil registration systems and drawing attention to the severe human cost of the COVID-19 waves, especially the Delta wave that ravaged the country in mid-2021.
Covid-related fatalities showed the highest percentage increase between 2020 and 2021, jumping from 160,618 deaths in 2020 to 413,580 deaths in 2021, a staggering 157.5 per cent increase, outpacing other causes by a significant margin.
Diseases of the respiratory system, already a major health burden in India due to pollution and underlying conditions, also saw a sharp rise, with deaths increasing from 181,160 to 305,191, marking a 68.5 per cent rise.
Deaths from diseases of the circulatory system rose from 580,751 to 714,072, a 22.9 per cent increase, while deaths from infectious and parasitic diseases rose by 14.3 per cent.
Meanwhile, categories such as endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases saw only a two per cent rise, while injury and poisoning deaths rose by just 2.4 per cent.
Interestingly, deaths due to neoplasms (cancers) and certain perinatal conditions even saw slight declines, falling by 5.5 per cent and 3.2 per cent respectively.
The sheer scale of COVID-19 deaths and the accompanying spike in respiratory complications reshaped India's overall mortality landscape, leaving a visible and lasting imprint on national health statistics.
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff
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